Full Throttle
by JinnySkeans
Summary: Gangland mentality. Crossing burned bridges and trying not to get caught up in the flames. Sasuke and Sakura, and how lightning never strikes twice, except when it does. AU
1. Prologue

_Now_

The lighting wasn't ideal, but he'd worked with worse.

The tire was unsalvageable. Another donation to the scrap heap collecting in the dimly-lit alleyway. This one was relic of a wayward gunfight; Suigetsu had taken the wrong road, insulted the wrong people, and barely made it out of the situation alive. The three bulletholes Sasuke counted in the tire were evidence of that. Suigetsu himself was okay, Karin was tending to him, and even if things could have gone a whole lot better, they definitely could have gone a whole lot worse.

That was always Suigetsu's problem, though, he reflected, somewhat pissed as he stubbed his cigarette out against the brick wall and let it drop carelessly to the gravel. He was too eager for conflict. And trouble was sure to come to guys like them, eventually, in a profession like theirs; but Sasuke resented Suigetsu's all-consuming need to go _create_ some where it wasn't needed. He was hotheaded. Reckless. Overly competitive.

(He couldn't have chosen a better lieutenant.)

But since Suigetsu required patching up tonight and Sasuke didn't trust any of his other members enough to know what had happened that night, he was tasked with changing the flat and hiding any evidence of the gunfight. He knew that Suigetsu wasn't the only one jonesing for a fight lately, and he didn't want to give anyone else in The Hawk a reason to seek some kind of backwards-ass retribution against the guilty party.

They weren't quite sure who it was Suigetsu came into the altercation with. He was on a routine delivery – moving stolen car parts to a warehouse across town – and according to Suigetsu, he'd been ambushed by three men in a dark car. He'd gotten a few good shots in himself while they were busy firing, but their windows were bulletproof and he could do no damage. What with the parts delivered, he made a quick getaway, sustaining a slight graze to his bicep in the fight but nothing worse than that.

Sasuke didn't like not knowing who he was competing with, especially when Oto was already such a dangerous place to operate. He was a man who liked having all the facts, because only then could he plan a move with any kind of certainty. His first responsibility as leader of The Hawk was ensuring that all of his subordinates were safe, and despite his cold, somewhat aloof personality, it was a responsibility that he took very, very seriously.

_Couldn't have been the Outer Ring,_ he thought with a firmly-set jaw, as he slid a new tire onto the side of Suigetsu's '67 Chevrolet Camaro. His muscles strained with the effort – it had been an especially trying day, and Suigetsu's chosen tires weren't light – as he considered his options. _They're rivals, but I know Naruto. This isn't their thing. There's the Sand Sibling gang from Suna, but I don't think Gaara's interested in this territory. Some more lower level potshot up-and-comers, but I doubt any of them could've gotten the jump on Suigetsu…_

_No. Whoever did this is a big player. And we need to figure out what they're after._

Twirling the lugnuts in place with the lugwrench was like second nature to him; in no time, he had the tire set in place, and he kicked it for good measure. It didn't move.

The rest of the car was in pretty decent shape, except for a few nicks in the paint by the driver's side door. Sasuke knew it would raise suspicion among his own members if they saw it, so he made a mental note to take it by Juugo's in the morning for a paint job. Luckily, any bullets that had hit the Camaro had been deflected by the steel underlay.

Sighing, Sasuke yanked a tarp from the junk heap collecting by the side and threw it over Suigetsu's damaged car. The rest would have to be dealt with tomorrow.

Tired now, he took a seat on an overturned stack of crates resting against the brick wall. This grungy-looking alleyway was perhaps not the most ideal place to host his makeshift autoshop, but it was reasonably concealed from civilians and difficult to find, for any enemies. For the past two years, he'd been using it as a scrapyard, and it now boasted a huge array of spare parts, pistons, gasoline tanks, everything a young gangland king would need to keep a fleet of cars, trucks, and motorcycles running smoothly. He'd gotten very good at mechanics over the past two years. He knew of only one person with more skill than he had.

But there was no time to ruminate any longer on things long since buried, and people better left forgotten.

Instead, Sasuke was faced with a new problem: determining the identities of the men who'd attacked Suigetsu earlier that night, who they worked for, their motive for what they'd done. Sasuke avoided violence if he could help it, but he was not one to back down from a fight if attacked.

And this was an assassination attempt. Sasuke couldn't afford to take it lightly.

His eyes narrowed as he withdrew a cigarette from his pack of Marlboros. He would absolutely find the culprit behind the attack tonight, one way or another. The satisfying _scratch_ of his match igniting against the brick wall behind him served as an exclamation point to his self-made vow.

Sasuke took a deep drag off the cigarette, relishing the way it heated his lungs from the inside out. He exhaled through his nose, watching the twin rings swirl into the sky with bored disinterest, his mind racing to plan his next move.

A far-off humming in the distance arrested his attention for longer than it ought to have. He had at least twenty men running patrols tonight in the area, so the tell-tale hum of a motorcycle engine shouldn't have captured his interest. But perhaps it was just because he'd been thinking of the Outer Ring tonight…thinking of Naruto…thinking of _her…_

Whatever the reason, he recognized the sound of the approaching motorcycle without having to look at it. He'd know that particular roar anywhere; there was only one person he knew, who could tinker with a motorcycle's engine and have it produce such a high-quality sound. Low and dangerous, but softer than the typical deafening thunder. His stomach clenched as he stood up off crates, dusted off his jeans, and turned his attention to a solitary rider turning down the alley.

Slightly, inexplicably disgusted with himself, he slid his hands casually into his pockets, one closing around the handle of a switchblade. In times like these – in an industry like his – you could never be too careful. Nonetheless, the thought of actually using the weapon on this familiar stranger made him uneasy.

"Does Naruto know you're here?" Sasuke asked dryly, pulling his face into a mask of honed apathy.

The rider disembarked smoothly from the bike and reached for their helmet. It was painfully obvious by the striking silhouette, even before the helmet was removed, that the person approaching him was a woman; he didn't need to watch the telltale wavy pink hair tumble down her shoulders to know that it was Sakura Haruno, but he watched her anyway.

"No," she replied, voice soft but strong. She was dressed for the slight chill in the air, in a slimming black leather jacket and ripped black shorts with her signature thigh-high leather boots. Her makeup was darker than he remembered it, concentrated around sharp, calculating green eyes, and her full pink lips weren't smiling. Sasuke could freely admit that she was the sexiest thing on the planet, but that didn't change where his allegiance lay. Or hers.

And it was no longer with each other.

"Then you shouldn't be here," he said flatly, stubbing out his cigarette. "How did you find me."

"You're not that difficult to find."

He considered pressing her harder for answers, but seeing her here was unexpectedly painful. Not to mention, the incredible risk she'd taken crossing into his territory with her status as a high-ranking member of The Hawk's Konoha enemy, the Outer Ring; she couldn't stay here another minute, for his sake _and_ hers.

"Get out of here, Sakura," he murmured, knowing his blatant dismissal would hurt her, and choosing words to maximize the sting. She had to know she couldn't come here whenever she felt like it. He was out of her life, she was out of his. That was the hand life had dealt them, and the only hand he had to play. Contenting himself with this unexpected glimpse into a Sakura he no longer knew, he made to move past her.

She caught him by the elbow in a surprisingly strong grip, considering her size and delicate appearance. Her fingers dug into his arm as she threw a familiar glare up at him.

"All this time, and you won't even hear me out?" she said quietly. "I guess nothing's changed with you, then."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he yanked his arm away from her, snapping, "Does Naruto even know you're here?"

"Naruto doesn't own me," she snapped back.

He smirked, cruelly. "If that's how you choose to remember it."

Green eyes flashed fire in the darkness of the empty alleyway, and she said quietly, "I didn't come to rehash the past. I came to _warn you._"

"I'm not coming back," Sasuke said harshly, reminding himself fiercely not to say 'home.' "I don't care what stupid ideas the idiot has for 'getting the old band back together' but it's not happening. Get out of here before someone sees you."

"_Listen_ to me!" Sakura hissed, ignoring his outright rejection. "Things are getting bad, Sasuke, they really are. And not just for us, but for you, too."

"Whatever shit the Outer Ring's gotten itself into lately is none of my concern." Sasuke yanked his arm away from her. "Quit trying to make it so. I'm not the only one out tonight, Sakura," he added, tacitly reminding her that as a known member of a rival gang, Sakura was endangering herself just by showing up. "Get back on your bike and go home."

"It's _Madara,_ Sasuke!" Sakura finally exploded, unable to restrain herself any longer.

He froze, refusing to acknowledge that his eyes were wide. "You're kidding."

"He's twisting Naruto's arm," she went on earnestly, now that she had his attention. "He's trying to muscle us out of the city. It turned violent last week. Neji's dead."

The news was shocking, but Sasuke was never one to emote, even when the situation called for it. Choosing his words carefully, as he always did with Sakura, he said, "This is the life you chose to lead. Same as Neji. You can't expect any kind death or longevity here."

"You know _damn well_ I didn't have a choice," Sakura hissed through clenched teeth. "That I _still_ don't. Don't you _dare_ hold that against me, not when you were there. Not when you already _know._ Neji was your _friend,_ Sasuke. And your fucking uncle had him gunned down in the street like a _dog_ last week, don't pretend like you don't care."

"I'm not a Ringer anymore!" Sasuke all but shouted, seizing Sakura by her slim biceps and shaking her. "What don't you realize about that? Accept it. Move on. Madara hasn't mobilized against The Hawk and until he does, this isn't my concern."

Even as he said that, though, he was struck by an epiphany. Suigetsu's attack earlier today…unexpected, out of the blue, and with no clues as to the culprit…there was no way that there was some actual, legitimate _truth_ in Sakura's words, was there? To ignore the possible connection would be the height of foolishness, but it felt even more foolish to indulge in the idea that his own uncle, steeped in criminal activity though he was, could have orchestrated a blitzkrieg attack on his nephew's lieutenant.

Sakura's appearance here, her warning, the attack on Suigetsu…was all of it connected?

"I left to find help," she snarled. "I wasn't naïve enough to expect that you'd come back but I had to try. So I'll settle for giving you the heads-up instead, so I can lay my fucking head down tonight and say I fucking _tried:_ once they take us down, they're gonna come for you. We heard it from three of his men directly, in the shootout. Warn your Family, don't say it came from me. And take your hands off me, Sasuke. You lost that right a long time ago."

He released her as though scalded, but she didn't move away. Instead, her leather-gloved hand slid up his stomach (setting his nerve endings ablaze in the process) and over his chest before she touched the simple metallic circle dangling from a chain around his neck. He clenched his teeth together but could do nothing against the all-knowing look in her stormy eyes.

For a few moments, nothing was said. Sakura's eyes, once shining and glowing and hopeful, were surprisingly dim tonight – maybe it was the shit-awful lighting in his not-so-secret alleyway – and for all her infamous beauty, she looked so _tired._ Like she'd seen and done it all at the ripe old age of 18, and had nothing left in life that could take her breath away. It was a look he'd seen on himself as well, and he found himself wondering, not for the first time, what had happened to her after his abrupt defection from Konoha and the Outer Ring.

Still, though, for all the weariness in her face, there was clarity in her eyes, and understanding. Her fingers danced along the feather-light chain he always wore beneath his jacket, and the tell-tale ring it held. The faintest hint of the saddest smile in the world played on Sakura's lips before she sighed and shook her head, letting her hand fall to her side again.

"Leave out the South Tunnel," he ordered her quietly, a departing piece of advice carefully concealed under feigned apathy and cool not-quite-detachment. "There's no one posted there tonight."

She nodded coolly at the tip and turned her back on him, piling her hair back under her helmet. "See you around," she called over her shoulder, the same words she'd used when they'd broken up two years ago.

He watched expressionlessly as she lifted one toned, slender leg and threw it over the side of her bike, straddling it like a master. With a quick rev of her engine, she spun an about-face and disappeared down the street, just as quickly as she'd come.

* * *

**note..** the usual. bored. new story. i submit no excuse, besides the fact that i've been wanting to do a gangland sasusaku for awhile and now fuck it i'm just gonna do it.

this is a prologue. trying some new stuff this time around so i hope you stick with me and enjoy yourself. (and because i can't NOT write some fucking sex with these two versions of sasuke and sakura i'm working on, i'll have some of that later on. not here, though, since MA ain't allowed. my livejournal. later. LATER.)

spoiler alert.

anyway, hope you guys are having a good night. i'm not as drunk as i planned to be but stupid husbands can't hold their stupid liquor and whatevs lolz so i guess i'll just tuck in early tonight. be safe and have fun!

oh, and if you like this, let me know. and if you don't like this, don't let me know. and if you want to do shots with me, let me know where you live and i'll come over.

xoxo daisy :)


	2. Risk

Sakura knew it was a risk coming here.

Oto was deceptively beautiful, especially at night. There wasn't a lot of night traffic like there was in Konoha, which was always busy and always bustling. Instead, things were quiet after dark in Oto, besides the occasional police cruiser or Hawk member running patrols.

Sakura knew it hadn't always been like that. Oto's street gangs, just two years ago, were disorganized and violent, clusters of angry societal malcontents itching for street cred in all the worst ways. They were constantly breaching the Konoha city limits in an effort to engage the Outer Ring in spurts of gang violence; Sakura had lost quite a few friends to the frequent scuffles.

Then, when Sasuke Uchiha defected to Oto from Konoha, all of that changed. Many of the disorganized, unpredictable gangs united as one, and violence, whether it be from his influence or just the overall improvement in the police force in Oto, dramatically decreased. In fact, in the past 18 months, there hadn't been a single fight between the Outer Ring, the Konoha gang she belonged to, and The Hawk, the name Sasuke had given his unified Oto gang.

She gunned her engine a little bit harder as the thought of his name made her stomach muscles clench. No tears rushed to her eyes this time, not at the difficult journey, the considerable risk she'd taken to enter Oto (just because no fights had broken out lately didn't mean a Ringer was welcome with open arms into a competitive city), nor Sasuke's completely-anticipated rejection.

Time had changed her, for better or worse. Sasuke's words couldn't harm her anymore, not when she'd dipped her heart in ice and apathy.

_It wasn't like I expected any different,_ she thought, narrowing her eyes as she crossed the border out of Oto to the main road. _Sasuke cut ties with the Outer Ring two years ago and besides making sure no more Oto gangs cross into our boundaries, he's made no attempt at all to reconnect with any of us. I should've known better…but I still had to try._

She would never have made the journey, never have taken the risk, if she had had any other choice. But the truth of the matter was her back was against the wall. All of theirs were, and had been for several months now.

It was only after Neji Hyuuga was gunned down in cold blood the other night that the Outer Ring knew drastic action had to be taken.

They were under attack now, by a big time player named Madara, his left hand man Kabuto, and their enormous entourage of high-paid killers. Konoha was a coveted gang ground, with plenty of foot traffic and plenty of customers; it would be a huge acquisition to someone like Madara, with a massive political influence and a burning ambition to expand.

But that would mean eliminating the competition. Namely, the Outer Ring, the largest, best-organized gang in the city.

She bit her lip to force thoughts of Neji out of her mind. His funeral was scheduled for tomorrow morning. Closed casket, though; whoever had taken him out made a real mess of his head.

Somber thoughts carried her the rest of the three-hour journey. She had just enough gas to make it back home, absolutely refusing to risk stopping at a station in Oto, and she knew she should probably go a bit easier on her bike, but she wanted to put as much distance between herself and her ex-boyfriend as humanly possible.

He wasn't going to help them. Just as she'd suspected (and surely to Naruto's great shock, given the leader's blind faith in his best friend), he was turning his back on his old Family, despite Sakura's plea for help. She didn't know all the details of his animosity for the Outer Ring, just hazy snippets caught here and there, but whatever it was, it was too much for Sasuke to even consider returning.

Again, it wasn't unexpected, but Sakura would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed. If she was counting on Sasuke to be affected by the fact that she'd risked her neck to tell him what was going on (however vaguely), then she was a fool. He'd taken the news of Neji's death – one of his closest childhood friends – without even batting an eyelash.

He wasn't coming back. Which meant that the Outer Ring was on its own.

Konoha's city limits were in her sights now, and automatically, she slowed her bike down to a grinding halt just before turning onto the ramp that would take her home.

It wasn't the first time she'd considered just _leaving._ Running away from the lifestyle she never would have chosen for herself, if she could choose again. There was nothing to stop her, really; it wasn't like she couldn't leave whenever she wanted. Naruto would be hurt, but he would understand what freedom meant to her.

She didn't have to go back. She could escape now, keep on the main road to Iwa, Kusa, _anywhere_ else, away from this gangland rhapsody she wanted nothing more than to leave behind. No more Outer Ring, no more sleeping with a knife under her pillow, no more dreams haunted by dead friends and gone-forever lovers. It would be easy.

Sakura allowed herself a full five minutes of unrestrained fantasy, even taking off her helmet to feel the wind in her hair. She imagined getting back on her bike and speeding away into the night, past Konoha, past _everything._ It would be easy, she knew. She could set up shop in a new city. Change her name. Get a job waiting tables and put herself through school. She could _be_ somebody. Her future would belong to her, and she would have freedom.

_I don't have to go back,_ she thought, even as she piled her hair up under her helmet again. _I can leave,_ she thought, even as she revved her motorcycle's engine and it roared to life. _I can be free,_ she lied to herself, as she crossed the border back into Konoha, leaving all thoughts of freedom at the city limits, where they belonged.

No.

Leaving wasn't a possibility, not just yet. She had a debt to pay, and until it was paid, she could entertain nothing more than fleeting little fantasies of escaping the Outer Ring.

Freedom was hard won, even in the 21st century.

* * *

"What did you think you were doing?" Naruto demanded that night in his apartment.

Sakura sighed.

He wasn't, perhaps, the likeliest candidate for gang leader. Most of the ones she'd come across had been much colder, much more aggressive, more violent. Calculating.

Instead, Naruto was perhaps one of the nicest, most determined young men she'd ever known. If you never saw the telltale tattoo they all wore on their biceps, signifying their Outer Ring status, you would never think he held such an unsavory position. He looked more like a high school football player, with a burly build, young, cheerful-looking face, sunny smile, warm, bright blue eyes.

Very rarely did he lose his temper with her – they'd been friends their whole lives, and trusted each other implicitly – but when he did, it was never without reason.

"It had to be done," she said quietly, crossing her arms. "You were dragging your feet. Besides, I'm the fastest rider here. I was our best chance of sneaking into Oto without getting caught."

"You went off on your own like you always do," Naruto snapped, and she knew that his anger wasn't with her flightiness; he only ever sniped at her if she did something reckless. "You didn't tell anyone where you were going. You crossed into _enemy territory_, and you did it alone."

"Naruto I'm sorry," Sakura finally sighed. She sagged into his sofa, all the weariness from the night's events catching up with her at last. "I know I should've waited for your mark. But for what it's worth…he's not coming back. Didn't so much as consider it as an option."

Naruto hesitated, then sighed as well. For a moment, neither of them spoke, just sat together with a cushion separating them on Naruto's careworn sofa. His apartment was a wreck, as always, but he spent so little time in it anyway that cleaning it was mostly an exercise in futility. (That was always _his_ excuse, anyway. Sakura had limited free time as well, but she kept her tiny, grungy apartment downstairs impeccably neat all the same.)

How many times had she come to his apartment to deliver bad news?

"Didn't think he would," Naruto said. "Did you at least warn him? That Madara's already put the word out for The Hawk?"

"Yeah," Sakura replied. "Not that he deserves it or anything," she added spitefully.

Naruto smiled humorlessly and shook his head, no stranger to hearing her verbal vitriol where Sasuke was concerned. To her eternal aggravation, Naruto had never been quite as angry as she was when Sasuke left two years ago. It made her suspect that perhaps Naruto knew something she didn't, some explanation as to his sudden betrayal, which both hurt and infuriated her. As his second-in-command, didn't she _deserve_ to know the reasons behind Sasuke's defection?

"You'd regret if he died," he remarked knowingly.

Refusing to give him the satisfaction of commenting, she merely turned her attention towards the TV. The early morning news was on.

"…_funeral services will be held this morning for Neji Hyuuga,"_ the reporter was saying, and Sakura's heart clenched painfully at the reminder. "_Hyuuga, a known higher-up in the Outer Ring organization, was 20 years old when he was killed in a gunfight last Tuesday. He leaves behind no surviving relatives._"

"He never really recovered," Naruto remarked, his usual bright blue eyes dimmed and sad. "Neji, I mean. After…you know. Hinata."

Sakura's hand flew out automatically to cover Naruto's, knowing how painful it was to mention Hinata's name, even three years later. Back when Sasuke was still home, back when the world wasn't so dark.

A simple case of wrong place, wrong time, and Naruto's world had been snatched out from under him. Naruto was driving them both to a restaurant for dinner – it was her birthday – when a rival gang, one of the smaller, more violent ones from Oto, ambushed them in the parking lot. Shots were fired and although he tried to protect her, Hinata was killed in the crossfire.

Neji, her cousin and self-appointed protector, was never really the same after that, and neither was Naruto, her boyfriend. Sakura knew his shattered heart had never fully recovered from the agony of Hinata's death, and that since then, he'd turned his attention to changing the reputation of the Outer Ring. There were less and less fights lately, especially now that Sasuke seemed to have corralled the gangs out in Oto. At least, before Madara went public with his interest in Konoha.

"What're we gonna do, Sakura?" Naruto asked quietly. "This place is all we have, you know? And if no one helps us, we're gonna lose it. To _them._"

"We're gonna keep it," she said harshly, knowing that kind, gentle Naruto needed tough love every now and then. "Konoha is _ours. _They're not gonna get rid of us. We'll do it _without_ Sasuke's help. What about Gaara? Any news there?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with large, calloused fingers. "He's on the fence," he mumbled. "Shikamaru went to Suna this morning to see if they could work out a deal or something."

"A deal?"

"Yeah. Maybe if we pay him the right amount, he'll help us out with Madara."

"Gaara owes you his _life,_ Naruto," Sakura said sharply. "He shouldn't need to be bought."

Naruto smiled and ruffled her hair playfully, something he knew she hated. "Well let's just say not everybody has the same philosophy about debt that you do."

"They should," Sakura said bitterly. "Debts should be repaid."

She thought angrily of the enormous debt her widower father had accrued before his death; borrowing from gangbangers and gambling it all away over the years. Naruto's father, Minato, the head of the Outer Ring before his son succeeded him, had paid off Kizashi Haruno's debtors with the understanding that Kizashi would pay him back over time. It was a thoroughly benevolent gesture, the kind Minato Namikaze was known for.

But rather than pay Minato back what he owed him, Kizashi fled the city, leaving behind a six-year-old daughter. She never heard from him again, and assumed him dead; without the Outer Ring's protection, he was bound to run afoul of the wrong kind of creditor again.

Sakura now worked for Naruto basically for free, serving as mechanic, messenger, and advisor to her childhood friend and his unsavory business, in an effort to return Minato Namikaze's generosity. He'd loaned Kizashi Haruno a vast amount of money, and Sakura was determined to remain in the Outer Ring until every last cent of it was returned to Naruto's family.

It was Naruto, after all, who'd brought her in, a six-year-old foundling picking through garbage cans trying to find something to eat, Naruto who saved her life then and countless times since, helping her ingratiate into the Outer Ring until she found herself a new Family. It was Naruto, to whom she owed _everything._

And no matter how much she wanted to leave the gang life behind, her debt to Naruto – and her allegiance to the Family – kept her where she was.

"Not all debts," Naruto said softly. "Sakura I know you don't want to do this forever. And our dads are both dead; anything you think you owe us, it doesn't count anymore. I'd never keep you here if you really wanted to leave."

"I know that, Naruto," she replied gently. "But I'm in this with you. Whatever happens, I won't run away."

Naruto needed her right now, she knew, whether or not he'd be willing to admit it. So did the others, her friends in the Outer Ring, and the people who relied on them. No matter how desperately she craved her freedom, it simply wasn't the right time to pursue it.

Thinking of that always depressed her, so she shook her head and smiled, ruffling Naruto's hair right back. "We have to get ready for the funeral," she said quietly. "C'mon."

* * *

It was a bleak, somber, sparsely-attended affair. Neji's known affiliation with a gang, even one as historically nonviolent as the Outer Ring, guaranteed the need for low publicity. Everyone knew of his death, but only a certain privileged few knew where to mourn him.

Sakura barely paid attention to the service the priest was giving. Instead, she kept her eyes on the girl in the front row. Tenten, Neji's girlfriend, sat wearing black like the rest of them, her shoulders rigid, her back straight, eyes forward; she wasn't crying, wasn't shaking, wasn't _anything._

And Sakura, who had long since steeled her heart against life's blistering unfairness, felt it break all over again.

_That's the only way out of this, isn't it?_ she thought, closing her eyes. _In a casket. That's the only way out of here. And how fucked up is it that I'm actually JEALOUS? Because Neji gets to leave. Neji's free now. _

There was no family to pay respects to so the service went by quickly, and Neji was buried beside his cousin Hinata on the same sunny autumn morning. Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee served as pallbearers delivering the casket to the family plot, while Ino and Sakura held Tenten's hands. Only Neji's closest friends were permitted to attend the burial, and looking at them without knowing who they really were, Sakura wondered if they looked like hardened gangbangers, or just a motley crew of seven stupid teenagers mourning a beloved friend.

(She guessed it was the former, but she hoped it was the latter.)

She felt Tenten squeeze her hand as the casket was lowered into the earth, and squeezed back.

"I think I know how you must've felt back then," Tenten whispered, her voice brittle.

Sakura looked up at the taller girl in confusion. "What?"

"When Sasuke left," she went on, her brown eyes empty as she watched her boyfriend's black casket disappear into the six-foot hole. "I didn't understand it back then, you know. Why your eyes went dead."

Sakura's stomach muscles clenched in pain as Tenten bowed her head.

"And I want you to know," Tenten whispered, "I'm sorry I didn't understand, because now I do. You're living your life half-whole…and I guess now I'll have to do the same thing."

Sakura let go of Tenten's hand and pulled the taller girl into her arms instead; Ino was quick to follow, as Tenten finally released her tears. There was nothing Sakura – or anyone else – could say that would take away her pain, and in an industry like theirs, this kind of thing happened all the time. All that you could do was be there for them, and help them hold themselves together.

"Sakura," she heard Tenten whisper tearfully in her ear, "do you…do you ever get over it?"

They didn't have the same circumstances; Neji, by all accounts, loved Tenten dearly and only death could separate them. Sakura lost her significant other to gang politics and a tantamount of secrets she wasn't privvy to. Sasuke was still alive, kept apart by his own accord. He didn't love her anymore, if he ever did. He and Neji weren't the same.

And yet, Sakura found herself replying, the kind of gut-wrenching truth a person only ever divulges if they haven't thought about it beforehand.

"You never get over being alone," she whispered, feeling her expression frost over, the same bitterness she'd long since learned to guard herself with taking over once more.

"You just get used to it."

* * *

"How you holdin' up?" Kiba asked sympathetically that night in the shop.

She rubbed a stream of sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, smearing grease into her skin. "Filthy," she muttered, adjusting the camshaft.

He sighed, but didn't pry any further, something Sakura always appreciated about him. He leaned against the door of the '69 Dodge Charger Daytona she was currently working on, lighting a cigarette with a butane lighter.

"Shikamaru went back to Suna after the funeral," he confided in her, taking a long drag off the cigarette before offering it to her. She leaned over and he held it for her so she could inhale without abandoning her work, then dipped back under the hood. "He didn't get very far with Kankurou, Gaara's brother; Naruto told him to go straight to the top this time."

"D'you think he'll help us?" she asked, keeping her eyes peeled for any loose wires as she surveyed her handiwork.

Kiba shrugged. "It'd be in his best interest to. If Madara takes all of us out, Suna won't be far behind. We're stronger than they are. If Gaara's got any sense, he'll join us. I'm surprised Sasuke said no."

"I'm not," Sakura quipped. Then she stood up from the engine and slammed the hood shut, her eyes narrowing. "I didn't tell anyone I was going there but Naruto after I got back…how'd _you_ know Sasuke turned us down?"

"I didn't," Kiba returned dryly. "Just a hunch. You just confirmed it, babe."

"Dick," she snapped, elbowing him out of the way as she stalked across the shop to the bathroom.

"Come on, Sak, someone's got to keep an eye on you, the way you run off all the fuckin time."

"I didn't do it to run _away,_" Sakura hissed. "I thought…you know what, never mind. I don't owe you an explanation. Naruto knows my reasons and that's all I fucking care about."

She shoved her hands under the faucet and scrubbed soap into her fingernails as hard as she could. Grease from screwing around with the engine of Kiba's car collected in her nailbeds, staining her fingers and streaking up her arms. Maybe it was her exhaustion, her sadness over the death of her friend, or Kiba's overbearing nosiness, but she was so fucking _frustrated_ that, of all things, tears pricked in her eyes.

She hadn't cried in _two years._

"Look," Kiba said gently from behind her, and she looked up to see his tattooed face watching her in the bathroom mirror. "I didn't mean to…you know. Pry. I know you've got your reasons for doing…whatever the hell it is you do. But Sakura, I'm serious here, and you know I don't always get serious with you…"

She met his eyes in the mirror, and watched them darken.

"…stay away from Uchiha."

She blinked, refusing to let any emotions show on her face as Kiba mentioned the very name that caused her so much stress over the years.

"He's bad news for you, baby," advised one of her closest friends, placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. "What he did to us can't be forgiven. Stay away from him. You don't think straight where he's concerned and no matter what you want to think, he can't be trusted. Understand?"

Sakura clenched her teeth, thoroughly resenting the way he spoke to her, but he just shook his head.

"You need to hear this," he said firmly. "Do you understand?"

Sakura finally sighed, drying her clean hands on a towel and throwing it in Kiba's face. "Sasuke Uchiha," she said smoothly, "is _nothing_ to me anymore. So knock it off with this."

Kiba didn't look convinced.

"I did _not_ go to Oto because I still have feelings for him," she said, her tone sharp and blisteringly honest. "I went because Madara and the _Akatsuki_ outnumber us ten to one, and the only way we're gonna stand a chance against them is if we can dig up some allies out of thin air. But Sasuke turned me down, without so much as a second thought. He's nothing to me anymore, and I didn't go to Oto under any false illusions that he's the same boy who left two years ago. I'm done talking about this, Kiba. I appreciate your concern," she ruffled his hair fondly, "but seriously. _Knock it off._"

He hesitated, then smiled, content with her response.

"All right," he said. "In that case, now that you're done, come with me."

"Where. I'm tired. I want to go home."

"Naruto's calling a meeting tonight. You, me, Lee, Ino. Kakashi and Asuma are down there, too, couple other Ringers, all higher-ups. I think something's going on. Something big."

Sakura blinked, then nodded. Naruto rarely called meetings without due cause; whatever the reason for summoning them all to the Warehouse after midnight, it had to be important.

With that in mind, she tugged on her leather jacket and let one of her best friends drape a comforting, muscular arm around her shoulders as they took off into the night. Thoughts of Sasuke Uchiha were left in the body shop, abandoned for now, but bound to crop up again sooner or later.

It was like she told Tenten that afternoon: you never really got over it. Just _used_ to it.

* * *

**note..** i'm like in love with writing this story. i'm working on a bitter, cynical, world-weary sakura this time around and all kinds of shit i've never touched on before. sorry i'm not sorry but i killed hinata, so it's only naruhina in the past. but i have an idea for naruto i haven't tried yet, so i'm excited to get to that :)

anyway, thank you all SO MUCH for the great response to the first chapter. blew my little daisy heart away :) i know i say it a lot, but it really does inspire people to write more and write faster, with so much support and lovely feedback. and y'alls know how lame i find the whole favoriting/following without a review every once in awhile, and i appreciate you not being lamebrains :) HAPPY GIRL.

if you liked it, let me know. if you didn't, don't :) (anybody else mad excited for 633?)

lolz. love you.

xoxo daisy :)


	3. Interrogation

His apartment was out of the way; only Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo knew exactly where it was. The Hawk's enemy activity had decreased recently (a notable exception being the would-be assassination attempt of Suigetsu the day before) but it was still the height of foolishness to disclose his home address to just anybody. It was small and sparsely-furnished, barely lived-in, a place he visited only to sleep and shower.

He spent the night awake, laying on his back on the sofa, staring at the chips in the ceiling paint above his head. He was exhausted, but way too wired to sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw Suigetsu stumbling into the alleyway with blood running down his arm. Karin's frightened expression as she ushered him inside their warehouse headquarters to clean him up.

Sakura's chilling warning, and the disappointment in her eyes at his response.

_What the hell was she doing, coming here?_ he thought angrily, folding his arms. _If she'd been found by one of The Hawk…_

He knew Sakura was a very intelligent girl. She would not have taken such a risk without good reason, which lent a fair amount of credibility to her warning.

Madara, she'd said, had joined up with Kabuto, another famous gangster, and they were gunning for both the Outer Ring _and_ The Hawk.

Granted, it _would_ explain the attack on Suigetsu. Whoever had tried to kill him knew what they were doing, they definitely weren't the mindless, disorganized low-level gangsters crawling between cities. Bulletproof cars, guns with silencers…they'd even remembered to cover the license plates, so Suigetsu couldn't nail them.

And Sasuke knew for a fact that Madara didn't hire idiots.

There was also the rather uncomfortable truth that Sakura had no reason to lie to him.

Yes, she was part of a rival gang and yes, she had more than enough reason to despise him, given their history, but the violence had come to a grinding, begrudging halt between the Outer Ring and The Hawk. Sakura wouldn't risk that shaky armistice by sending him on a wild goose chase, not when she would have so much to lose by pissing him off unnecessarily.

It wasn't like he didn't know everything there was to know about the Outer Ring, after all, considering he'd once been its second-in-command.

No, Sakura wasn't stupid enough to lie right to his face, which was all the more chilling.

And Neji was dead. Only someone very, very clever and very, very powerful could have gotten the jump on _him._

He would need to speak with his closest confidantes. Juugo was working the shop that night, but given Suigetsu's skirmish, he knew exactly where to find him, and his redheaded girlfriend.

As usual, Karin was a veritable sieve of information.

They were at the infirmary in the Warehouse, little more than a makeshift hospital room with some basic medical supplies. For really severe injuries, they used the civilian hospital, but if a wound could be patched up internally, Sasuke preferred it that way. And Karin, despite very basic training, was as proficient a nurse as they came.

She was tending to Suigetsu, predictably, fussing over the shallow wound on his arm, her pinned up and eyes sharp behind her glasses, but ready to divulge all that she knew at one glance from Sasuke.

"They covered the plates, the bastards," she said, not looking up from her boyfriend's arm. "Not surprising, they knew what the hell they were doing. Bulletproof glass, too. Still, we think we may have popped one of their tires and chipped a bit of paint from one of their cars. It's not much, but maybe if we get a sample, we can trace it back to the manufacturers. Get some clue as to who did this. I have Sakon scouting the scene right now, Ukon's his backup in case they come back."

"And Suigetsu?"

"He'll live," Karin said harshly, almost like a threat, and Suigetsu smirked sheepishly.

"As if you'd give me permission to die," he said dryly.

"Oh, something else, Sasuke," Karin said carefully, and Sasuke felt her piercing scarlet eyes on him. "We got a report from one of the patrols on the South side…said he saw a motorcycle pass through the South Tunnel around 3 this morning. Wasn't one of ours, or a police cruiser. Know anything about that?"

"Hn."

"Well. Whatever the case, he got a picture of it on his phone. Sent it to me. Sasuke…I know it's hers."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but she thrust her phone into his hands. Sure enough, there was a picture of a sleek silver bike, small and fast as hell, driven by a petite woman whose face and hair were hidden by a helmet. Though the photo was slightly blurry given the speed she must have been going, he could easily make out the intricate floral filigree on the bodykit that she'd hand-drilled herself.

"It's _nothing,_" he said emphatically.

"I know Sakura, Sasuke," Karin said, her tone sharp as she tightened Suigetsu's bandage. "I know she wouldn't have come here on a joy ride. What did she want?"

"Sakura Haruno?" Suigetsu chimed in, his curiosity piqued, even as he hissed at Karin's rough treatment. "Wait, wasn't she your gi-"

"She's the Outer Ring's second-in-command," Sasuke interjected, his bad mood worsening with each word of their conversation.

"She came _here?_ By _herself?_ Jesus, what _for?_"

Sasuke sighed in irritation. Better to just tell them now, than tolerate their constant badgering.

"She wanted to form an alliance," he said curtly.

"AN ALLIANCE?!"

Sorely regretting opening his mouth, Sasuke threw Karin's phone back at her and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Stay here, both of you," he ordered sharply, not wanting to deal with either of them at the moment.

"Where are _you_ going?" Karin demanded. She put her hands on her hips. "What's going on, Sasuke? For real? We have a right to know!"

The door slamming shut between them was all the answer Karin was going to get for right now.

* * *

Oto's prison was one of the first places renovated and redone when The Hawk established their dominance in the city. Like Konoha and the Outer Ring before them, their protection applied not only to their own members, but to the civilians in Oto, which meant that the corrupt prison system needed a serious overhaul. Inmates struck deals with sheisty guards and took plea bargains offered by corrupt attorneys, which meant barely anyone served any legitimate jail time for their crimes.

Now, with a brand new prison guard roster, the dangerous inmates locked away in Oto Detention Center no longer posed a threat to the city. It was one of the strategic moves that Sasuke was proudest of, the massive overhaul of ODC.

And it hadn't been easy.

It was the last stop on the Oto bus route, a real pain in the ass travel-wise. But Sasuke needed to be discreet for this visit, and showing up on his bike or in one of his cars would give him away instantly. For as long as possible, he wanted to keep what was going on a complete secret, from civilians _and_ the other members of The Hawk.

At least, until he figured exactly what the hell this whole thing _was._

The attack on Suigetsu, and Sakura's unexpected visit…that couldn't have been a coincidence. Her warning, while shocking, might very well be true. Madara and the Akatsuki really could be after them; as leader of the most prominent gang in Oto, Sasuke knew he'd painted a giant target on his own back. And Oto had a good market as far as gangs were concerned. Like Konoha, it was an enviable port.

And though he was his nephew, Sasuke realized he knew next to nothing about Madara at all. And it was a grave misfortune to underestimate your opponents, even the ones you were related to.

Which brought him here that same rainy evening, having evaded Karin and Suigetsu's grilling third-degree about Sakura Haruno's unexpected presence in the city. The walls at ODC were high, reinforced steel, hidden cameras monitored every inch of the sprawling, barren campus, and a crew of hardened policemen ran constant patrols around the perimeter to ensure that everyone meant to stay inside never escaped.

It wasn't the most pleasant place in the world to be, he reflected, as the security team took one look at him and let him inside. Especially for him, considering he'd put many of the inmates in here himself, whether personally or through one of his Hawk missions. Unsavory as his job may be from time to time, Sasuke was mollified by the fact that he and his Family did some good every now and then.

Still, though, his presence did not endear him to ODC's inmate roster.

"Sasuke," the warden greeted him, once he'd been patted down and admitted inside. (Everyone turned a blind eye to the gun he kept in the back of his jeans at all times; as a gang leader, even one not even out of his teens yet, everybody knew the importance of packing. You could never be too careful.)

"Arashi," Sasuke replied coolly. They shook hands, and Arashi led Sasuke through security clearance and finally into his own office on the ground floor.

"What can I do for you today?" asked Arashi with a smile, pouring himself a cup of coffee and offering Sasuke the same.

Sasuke shook his head and didn't sit down at the seat across from the warden. "I need to speak with one of your prisoners."

Arashi nodded in understanding as he added a splash of milk to his coffee. It was rare, but not unheard of; if Sasuke wanted information, he would show up on occasion and request to speak with one of the inmates he felt could point him in the right direction. And with so much owed to him from the Oto prison system, Arashi was more than happy to oblige Sasuke wherever possible.

"Certainly," he said courteously. "Who?"

Sasuke's lip curled, and he said, "Orochimaru."

He watched Arashi freeze, and the reaction was expected. Of all the dangerous, nefarious criminals currently housed in the detention center, Orochimaru was the worst. His personal history with Sasuke was well-known; he'd taken the boy in himself when he'd left Konoha two years ago, spent a good several months teaching him the ins and outs of Oto gang life…

Then was double-crossed by Sasuke and imprisoned for life. The story was huge.

"_Orochimaru?_ Are you sure? He's…"

"He's the man I need to talk to," Sasuke said coldly, abandoning all pretense of civility and reminding Arashi, whose face went pale, that he was a dangerous man and didn't like his time wasted. "Can you arrange it or not."

"A-Absolutely, Sasuke. I'll…I'll have him brought from Iso and you can speak to him yourself. Uh, Toshiro," Arashi buzzed in a prison guard, "please escort Mr. Uchiha to Visitation Cell 6. He wishes to speak to Inmate 76721."

"Thanks," Sasuke muttered, leaving Arashi stammering out apologies and following behind Toshiro.

* * *

If Orochimaru was displeased to see the man who'd turned against him, he didn't show it.

He merely sat down in the chair with his hands cuffed to the table and observed Sasuke through the bulletproof glass window that divided them. He was dressed in the standard issue orange prison garb, and his skin looked even paler and more sallow than usual, to say nothing of his long, thinning greasy hair. The smile he offered Sasuke was deceptively pleasant.

"What an unexpected surprise," said Orochimaru, as Sasuke sat down opposite him. "Sasuke, my boy. How's life on the outside?"

"Better than in here," Sasuke replied with a smirk. "Prison doesn't seem to agree with you."

It had been a particular _pleasure_ sending Orochimaru up the proverbial river last year. With his considerable influence over the disorganized gang clusters surging inside Oto, he'd been responsible for many blitzkrieg attacks on gangs from other cities, namely the Outer Ring. Orochimaru was easily the dirtiest, most evil man he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting. He'd done everyone a favor in turning state's evidence against him, then uniting Orochimaru's clusters into one tempered, restrained Family.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Orochimaru asked, still smiling.

"You have information I need," Sasuke said immediately, without pretense. He knew how to handle Orochimaru. Trying to pull a fast one on him wasn't going to work.

"Ah. I see. What information?"

"Madara," Sasuke said flatly.

"Hmm. What about him?"

"That's for you to tell me. You worked with him before. What's he after."

"Oh Sasuke, Sasuke, _Sasuke._ In the end, how little we know of each other."

Sasuke didn't react. The knowledge that he had a very, very nice gun in his back pocket cooled his temper somewhat; picturing the satisfying smear Orochimaru's blood would leave on the wall behind him kept his expression neutral. All the same, he _hated_ to be patronized.

Orochimaru leaned back relaxedly in his chair as far back as the handcuffs on his bony wrists would allow, looking for all the world like they were old friends catching up on good times.

"You betray me," he said amiably, "have me sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, dismantle my criminal organization and reassemble it into something _unrecognizable,_ then come here expecting me to help you? Surely, my boy, you know that I won't so much as breathe a _word_ without a _price._"

Sasuke expected that. Which was exactly why he waved away the prison guard assigned to protect him.

He stood up from his chair and headed to the locked security door that divided inmates from visitors, aware that Orochimaru was watching him curiously. From the security tower, Toshiro buzzed Sasuke inside the holding cell where Orochimaru was sitting. The door shut behind him, and Sasuke smirked.

"You seem to think that the information you have for me, can't be obtained elsewhere," he said, approaching Orochimaru slowly, like a vulture circling a freshly-killed carcass. "And you labor under the delusion that I'm going to bend to your demands. You forget who I am, Orochimaru."

"Forget?" scoffed the older man, looking fearless where he sat handcuffed to the table. "How could I _forget, _ I _created_ you. Everything you know about this business, _I _taught you. There's nothing you can say that will…"

Sasuke cut him off, his left hand drawing his barely-concealed weapon and pointing it directly at Orochimaru's forehead.

He had no time for unnecessary violence, but he wasn't a gun-toting gangster for no reason; when the situation called for it, no one could _hurt_ someone quite as proficiently as Sasuke Uchiha. And he had no qualms about killing Orochimaru, not after all the man had done.

"You showed me the ropes around here," Sasuke conceded, releasing the safety and watching Orochimaru's pupils dilate with a morbid satisfaction. "But you haven't taught me _half_ of what I know now. Since you forget your place and your _miniscule_ role in this world, let me _remind_ you."

He turned his hand slightly in the universal kill-shot position, his intent clear and murderous.

"I have more than enough reason to kill you," he said softly, remembering one incident in particular four years ago. Judging by the way Orochimaru's thin dry lips curled into a sneer, he did, too.

"…I see your memory's as keen as ever," said the inmate, yellow teeth exposed. "How _is_ pretty little Sakura these days?"

"She's not serving a life sentence," Sasuke said, choosing his words carefully. Even though several years had passed since the incident in question, and even though he wasn't supposed to care anymore, he'd be lying if he said the subject of Sakura didn't get under his skin. "Talk."

"You know that there was nothing personal back then. Bad business is good business, and all that. I see, though, that despite the separation, you're still as…protective of her as you always were. That's a _weakness,_ Sasuke. She's a weakness."

"I should've killed you then, for what you did to her," Sasuke murmured, his finger twitching on the trigger. "And to have the nerve to so much as mention her name to me now…this is your last chance, Orochimaru. Tell me what you know of Madara. Or keep quiet, and I'll paint this room with your blood."

Orochimaru waited a full ten seconds before he sighed in surrender.

"Oh, very well, Sasuke. Put the gun down, I'll tell you what you want to know. Not like I get much other action here, you know."

Sasuke lowered the gun but didn't put it away. He wondered when the warden and the other guards would pull the plug on his half-cocked interrogation, or if they even would. So far, no one had come to stop him from breaking protocol and pulling a gun on a helpless prisoner.

Sometimes, being a street king had its advantages. Namely, no one fucked with you.

"What's Madara's plan for Oto?" Sasuke demanded. He wouldn't ask about Konoha, because that didn't concern him. His only priority was ensuring that his streets were safe; if Madara wanted the Outer Ring, he could have it.

He told himself it wouldn't matter either way.

"What makes you think your uncle ever told me any of his plans?" Orochimaru asked, not quite mockingly, but with just enough spice in his voice to rankle Sasuke's nerves.

"You worked with him."

"I worked _for_ him," Orochimaru corrected. "Learn the difference. Madara does not have partners, he has subordinates."

"Hn. So what about Kabuto."

"Whatever Kabuto Yakushi thinks he's doing, he's disposable to Madara. Everyone is, including family. He has his means and he has his ends, and he considers no one to be his equal, which makes everyone who joins with him replaceable."

Sasuke had only met his uncle a handful of times, but so far, Orochimaru wasn't telling him much he didn't already know. He'd overestimated Orochimaru's value to Madara so far, assuming they were partners. Perhaps Orochimaru didn't know nearly as much as he'd hoped.

"He did not tell me his plans for Oto," Orochimaru said finally. "But during our brief dalliances over the years, I learned what he wants from Konoha. It's not unreasonable to assume that what he wants from Oto is similar. Would you like to hear that story, Sasuke? Or is your hometown beneath your considerable notice?"

"Konoha's fate doesn't matter to me," Sasuke murmured, fingering the trigger of his gun almost lovingly. "But if it has relevance to Oto and The Hawk, I'll hear it."

Orochimaru watched him carefully behind amber eyes that lost none of their calculation, before he smiled. "It's a shame you can't forgive Konoha its role in your brother's death," he said almost pleasantly. "Because the Outer Ring and The Hawk would make a _very_ powerful alliance."

"I don't remember asking you," Sasuke snapped. "_What are his plans for Konoha?_"

"It's really quite simple," said Orochimaru lightly, before a sudden, familiar menace stole through his eyes.

"He's going to surround the city. He won't try and infiltrate, he knows the Outer Ring is too close to break into. Instead, he's going to take down the higher-ups."

_He's already started to,_ Sasuke thought, an unexpected heaviness settling in his stomach. _Neji's dead. Sakura reached out to Oto in desperation…maybe she knows she's…_

"He's not above attacking civilians to achieve his ends," Orochimaru continued. "Which, I'm sure, you already know. But a gang like the Outer Ring, which adheres to a strict no-violence code against civilians, makes itself vulnerable; Madara knows which arms to twist to get what he wants. What's more, is he has the manpower. Your typical muscled malcontents from all the surrounding cities. Hired thugs. Pays them off with his massive empire's wealth, buys their loyalty, and that's a dangerous arrangement, Sasuke.

"If the Outer Ring stands alone against him, they'll fall. He'll spare, perhaps, the lower-ranking members on the condition that they join him, but he will find all the higher-ups and he will kill them. You know his methods, Sasuke. If you thought mine were unsavory, think again."

Sasuke said nothing.

"Those are his plans for Konoha," Orochimaru said. "Crass and forward, I know. But if you suspect that he now has the same interest in Oto, you can assume that his philosophy won't be much different. He'll target you and the other high-ranking members in The Hawk. Cut off the proverbial head. And with your membership roster even lower than the Outer Ring's, I'd say you wouldn't stand much of a chance. He won't let a petty thing like a family bond get in the way of his endeavours."

_It makes sense, then,_ Sasuke thought, his worst suspicions confirmed as he slid his gun back into his jeans. _The anonymous attack on Suigetsu. Sakura's warning last night. Konoha's already under fire, and it looks like Oto's headed the same way._

He didn't bother deigning to bid a farewell to Orochimaru. As far as he was concerned, the bastard was lucky he didn't shoot him in the face, the way he wanted to. He knew the warden would turn a blind eye to the petty murder; he could've easily gotten away with it. Orochimaru was better off dead, and the whole city knew it.

Still, he'd divulged enough information to satisfy Sasuke's curiosity. So he turned his back on the interrogation and stalked out of the visitor's cell, the door slamming shut behind him, not quite loud enough to drown out Orochimaru's chuckle.

* * *

He kept his hood up on the bus back into town, and knew that when he wanted to look like a normal, unsuspicious teenager, he could. His reflection in the filmy glass window showed nothing but a tired, pissed-off, clueless kid with guilt and responsibility in his eyes, messy black hair and a few ill-hidden scars along his throat and hands.

_So we're fucked,_ he thought, reflecting on his conversation with Orochimaru.

Madara really _was_ gunning for Oto. He wanted control of Sasuke's territory, and he'd come close to taking out his lieutenant the day before.

If he could find Suigetsu, he could find any of them.

He could find Sakura again. He could. Promise her his allegiance, and then the Outer Ring and The Hawk could stand as one united front against Madara. Maybe they could drive him back, joining forces the way she'd wanted to. Naruto would welcome him back with open arms, he knew; Naruto was the only one in the world who knew the full story behind Sasuke's defection in the first place.

It would be an easy, effortless partnership. Young and powerful gangs coming together to retain their independence and battle back a serious threat. They would fight, and they might win.

But the very _notion_ made Sasuke sick to his stomach.

_I don't want to save them,_ he thought, teeth clenched together and eyes sharp as the bus pulled to a stop in front of the old movie theater. He disembarked, his thoughts darkening as he made the rest of the journey to the alley shop on foot. _None of them deserve to live, after what happened with Itachi._

He thought of Naruto and Sakura, the two people who challenged his bias. They'd had no role in Itachi's death, he knew that. But they continued to work with those who _were_ responsible, and he couldn't forgive that. As leader and lieutenant of the Outer Ring, regardless of their personal culpability, they were guilty right along with their Family, and he would not risk his own life or the lives of his new Family to protect them.

This was gangland. This was what they signed up for. Sasuke wasn't about to reconnect the bridges he'd burned years ago to save people who didn't deserve it.

_But what about my Family?_ he thought, kicking the pavement with his scuffed-up Chuck Taylors. _This could be the only thing that'll save them from Madara._

Was this his only recourse, then? Compromising his entire life's philosophy by taking up arms with an organization he hated, to save one he'd built from the ground up?

And if he chose not to answer Sakura's call. If he chose to let Konoha burn. Then what? What would happen to The Hawk and, utlimately, Oto? If he couldn't go through with the shaky alliance, what price would he have to pay on his own turf?

For the first time, in a very long time, Sasuke Uchiha didn't know what to do.

* * *

"_Do you think the boy suspects?"_

"_He'd be a fool not to. Say what you will about my family, but they are not fools."_

"_And what of the possibility of an…alliance, of sorts? Konoha and Oto. That kind of unity would be difficult to dismantle."_

"_Sasuke's strong, but he's ruled by his emotions. He won't be able to forgive Konoha's role in Itachi's death."_

"_Perhaps, but perhaps you understimate the value of his hometown. Remember, he was once lieutenant of the Outer Ring…close friends with the leader. There were rumors – more than rumors – that he was involved with the current ranking lieutenant prior to his departure. If they were to ask him to fight alongside them, how sure are you that his old bonds are as severed as you want them to be?"_

"_Patience, Kabuto. Sasuke's loyalties will be revealed in the end. In the meantime…the attack on Suigetsu Hozuki was a failure. We may have tipped our hand prematurely, but perhaps if Sasuke is aware of our plan, he will see the benefit in joining us, before we have to resort to something as messy as mass genocide."_

_Chuckles, then back to business._

"_Now then…our financial backer has a few minor requests."_

"_An anonymous financial backer, Madara. And here I took you for a genius."_

"_Anonymous to YOU, perhaps, Kabuto. But given that he's a prominent cash flow for Akatsuki, I'm willing to take orders every now and again."_

"_What's he want this time?"_

"_The girl. Naruto's lieutenant. Alive. I want this clean and contained, Kabuto."_

"_Consider it done."_

* * *

**note..** this story's so fun for me to write. can't even tell you. though you probably guessed, seeing as how i keep posting chapters every couple of days. :) i know there's a lot going on, but everything ties together eventually. you'll find out what the deal is with itachi, what orochimaru did to sakura that sasuke hated so much, who the anonymous financial backer is (any guesses?) and everything else soon.

if you liked it, let me know. sorry for monopolizing fanfiction, y'alls have got to be tired of hearing from me like this ;)

xoxo daisy :)


	4. Survivors

If there was one person Sakura could really, _really_ talk to, it was Shikamaru.

Yes, Ino was her best friend, but she also had a big mouth, and a tendency to shove advice in Sakura's face, even if all she wanted was someone to talk to. There was nothing more grating than unwanted advice, in Sakura's opinion, so Ino couldn't always be counted upon for some serious conversation. Naruto, though a dear friend, simply couldn't handle hearing her darker thoughts, and was so worrisome and protective of her that she always felt guilty going to him with complaints or fears. Kiba hardly took his own reflection seriously, and Kakashi, someone she looked at as a father figure after her own father's departure a decade ago, wasn't around all that often. (Something they had in common.) Neji had been a decent listener, but he was dead now.

But Shikamaru was levelheaded, nonjudgmental, and the smartest person Sakura had ever met.

If something was on her mind, she could always count on him to listen, and he only ever gave advice if she asked for it. They would head out to the all-night diner on the outskirts of the Sixth Ward, near the Tower, where many of the Ringers lived, and stay up all night long just talking. He was there for her when Sasuke left, and was one of the only people in the world who knew just how badly his defection affected her. He trusted her in equal measure, and seemed to value her opinions on the rare occasions when he found himself in need of help.

She loved all of her Family dearly, but Shikamaru was the one with whom she'd formed the closest bond over the most recent years.

So when he returned from Suna and a series of meetings with the Sand Siblings' leader, Gaara, she was unsurprised when he texted her asking her to meet him at Ayame's All-Nighter. She'd been dying for news on Gaara and where they stood with a possible alliance, and Shikamaru, unlike Naruto, wouldn't pull punches for the sake of sparing her worry. He respected her enough to keep her clued in to the truth on what was happening around her.

He would know how anxious she was to hear the newest developments with this Akatsuki situation.

The second she received his text, she threw on her leather jacket and all but ran to Ayame's.

He was waiting in their usual booth by the window, omnipresent cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. Sakura knew the reason they'd gravitated toward Ayame's All-Nighter in the first place was their lenient indoor smoking policy, not to mention the kickass coffee Ayame served them at a massive discount (civilians in Konoha respected, if not admired the Ringers.)

"Hey," she said with a smile, joining him in their booth. "You're back."

"So are you," Shikamaru replied, eyebrows raised in amusement as he passed her his cigarette, allowing her a long, slow drag before he took it back. "We didn't have time to discuss your little stunt after Neji's funeral."

"It's not like you have no idea how it went," Sakura said dryly, exhaling smoke in a delicate ring just as Ayame, the young owner, hurried over with a pot of her famous coffee. "Hey, Ayame, how are you?"

"Better now that my two best customers are back," she said sweetly, pouring them two generous mugs. "Been awhile since you two have been here, everything okay?"

"As okay as they'll ever be," Shikamaru replied cryptically.

"I heard about Neji," Ayame said, her pretty brown eyes sad.

Sakura stared down at her steaming mug and felt that familiar awful tightening in her chest. "Yeah. It…"

"Sucks," Shikamaru finished, and Sakura felt herself smile despite the sad circumstances. Blunt and honest, sometimes painfully so.

Ayame nodded and when Shikamaru reached for his wallet to pay, she waved him off. "On the house tonight, you guys," she said. "As much as you want. I'm sorry about Neji."

After she'd left them to their conversation, Sakura decided to shelve thoughts of Neji for a later time. The most pressing concern she had right now was finding out the results of Shikamaru's peacemaking trip.

"So how did it go with Gaara?" she asked eagerly.

He just smirked and shook his head.

"Not 'til you tell me what happened in Oto."

"There's not much to tell. I know you got all the details from Naruto earlier."

"I want 'em from _you._"

She sighed as she stirred cream into her coffee with a red coffee straw. "Like I said. Not much. I went to Oto, found Sasuke, told him the situation, asked if he'd consider helping us out. And surprising to _no one,_ he essentially told me to fuck off. End of story."

"Bullshit, Sakura. Remember I'm not Naruto. There's no need to sugarcoat reality with me."

He was right. She couldn't expect Shikamaru to be brutally honest with her if she wasn't willing to grant him the same courtesy. Taking a small sip of the hot beverage to steady herself, she said, "I did warn him, though. That the ones who killed Neji tipped us off about their plans for The Hawk."

"As I would have expected," he said with a firm nod to himself, stubbing out his cigarette.

"What's that supposed to mean."

"That you're Sakura," he replied simply.

"Shikamaru."

"That you show mercy when no mercy is shown to you," he clarified with a smile. "You didn't have to warn him, you know. Especially after he refused to come back here. You could've let him find out on his own, the hard way, what that shithead uncle of his has in store for him."

"I regret it," Sakura said coldly. "Telling him."

"No you don't." Shikamaru was still smiling, but his dark eyes were understanding. "You don't, because you still love the guy. Don't forget I was here, Sakura. I know how serious you guys were."

"Yeah," she scoffed. "So serious he'd leave in the middle of the night and never come back. So serious he'd let me, you, Naruto, all of us die just to settle a score with the city. We're fucking Romeo and Juliet, aren't we."

"Perhaps the star-crossed lovers bit," Shikamaru teased.

"Y'know, maybe I should've fallen in love with _you_ instead," Sakura giggled. "Probably would've saved myself a lot of grief."

"I think you're right about that. A relationship between two boring intellectuals like us would be nothing if not uncomplicated."

They both laughed at that, before Sakura lowered her voice. "Speaking of which…Suna. Temari. Gaara. What the hell happened there?"

"I'm declaring moratorium on the Temari subject," Shikamaru said dryly as he lit another cigarette. Sakura rolled her eyes. She knew (and so did everyone else, really) that she was not the only one with a complicated past involving a member of a rival gang. "But as for Gaara…that's an interesting one."

"Did he agree to help us?" Sakura demanded, impatient with their usual banter. Maybe it was Neji's recent death or her complete failure to recruit Sasuke as an ally against Madara, but she was fantastically on edge lately.

Shikamaru took her impatience in stride as he lit another cigarette with a match. She watched him carefully examine the other diner patrons to make sure no one was listening in, before he leaned in across the booth towards her. She met him halfway, watching him expectantly.

"He's on the fence," Shikamaru revealed. "Hasn't told us yes or no yet."

"Goddamn it," Sakura swore violently. "He _owes_ us. He owes Naruto his _life,_ and his sister's, and his brother's. If it wasn't for Naruto, they'd've died in that gunfight last year with the Kusa Kings!"

"Consider his position, Sakura. He's in charge of a very successful, very powerful gang two hundred miles away. Madara has not yet made a move against him; Gaara considers it unwise to choose sides in a war that might not even involve Suna."

"I can't believe this," she hissed. "What does he think is gonna happen after Madara takes us out? And The Hawk? Of _course_ he'll gun for the Sand Siblings after we're out of the way!"

"You know that and I know that," Shikamaru conceded. "But it's not enough to convince Gaara. He's looking out for his own Family. We have to respect that."

"Maybe _you_ do. It's cowardice, that's all. You know damn well that if _he_ came to _us_ for help, we'd be there in a second."

"He hasn't said 'no' either, Sakura."

"Then why does it feel like we're so _alone_ in this?" she whispered.

There was a beat of silence between them before Shikamaru reached across the table and took her hand.

She knew he wouldn't say 'we're gonna be fine' because Shikamaru was the only person in her life who never lied to her. She knew he wouldn't say 'it's gonna be okay' because he had no way of knowing that, and Shikamaru only spoke when he was sure of what he was saying.

"We have each other," he said simply. "And if we go down, we'll go down together."

She looked up at his handsome face and giggled. "You know you are _shit_ at cheering people up, right?"

"Your smile contradicts that statement."

Though the news he brought wasn't the good news she wanted to hear, he was right; at least it wasn't an outright rejection. There was still a chance that Gaara would help the Outer Ring. Sasuke had been a dead end, but Gaara, as far as Sakura was concerned, was as indebted to Naruto as she was. Perhaps he would come to his senses. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

"Sakura," Shikamaru said, his typically-lazy gaze suddenly sharp and intense as he stared over her shoulder. "Did Naruto assign you protection detail tonight?"

"What? No, of course not, he's…"

Shikamaru didn't wait for her to say another word. Without any further warning, he launched himself across the table at Sakura, knocking both their half-finished coffees aside.

"Shikamaru!"

Both of them crashed to the floor as the sounds of gunfire erupted in the diner.

It didn't take Sakura more than three seconds to process what was going on.

_An attack,_ she thought, instincts taking over as she shoved Shikamaru off of her and reached for her gun. _Get your shit together, Sakura, shoot or be shot!_

The other diner patrons were screaming, and there was a mass scrambling for the door. She ducked behind the booth she'd just vacated, a Beretta U22 Neos in her hand as she assessed the situation. There was a group of shooters – all dressed the same, in elegant black suits with sunglasses that concealed their features – sweeping inside the restaurant. Three…no, four.

_It's not a robbery,_ she thought, taking aim at the one in the front, who was coming towards them with his gun ready. _They're not after the money. Or anyone else here. They know me and Shikamaru are Ringers._

It was target practice. An assassination.

"Shikamaru!" she said sharply, as she felt him dive into the booth after her. "Cover me, it's them!"

Sakura fired at the man in the front, ensuring first that all the civilians in the diner fled first. One of the chief proponents of the Outer Ring was its strict antiviolence policy concerning civilians. Even if they were attacked, they wouldn't fight back if there was a chance of harming someone in the crossfire.

"That's what they were planning, damn it," Shikamaru swore in her ear, and Sakura felt the electric sting in her ear as a bullet whizzed by her. Shikamaru answered with a rapidfire series of shots of his own, and Sakura watched, without grimacing, as he took out two of the assassins. "Cornering us here."

"We can't kill them all!" Sakura said sharply, able to think rationally under pressure. She rolled onto her back and fired at the lightbulb overhead.

The bulb exploded with the force of impact, plunging the entire diner into darkness.

"What're you doing?" Shikamaru hissed in her ear, but Sakura rolled out of the booth and darted behind the vacated customer counter. The two remaining assassins fired at her shadow but missed, and she took a shot of her own, hitting her target in the back of the head, quickly ducking down behind the glasses.

_Three down,_ she thought, reloading her gun. _We need the last one for information. Find out who these bastards are._

"You're the ones who killed our friend, aren't you?" she demanded, keeping her back braced against the shelving as she cocked the hammer.

A low, deep chuckle answered her; she hoped Shikamaru would hold his fire until they got a few answers.

Still, _chuckling_ wasn't exactly the reaction she'd been expecting, not when they'd just killed three of his partners. Whoever he was rolling with (_Madara,_ her instincts told her, _it's MADARA_), clearly didn't share the bone-deep loyalty the Ringers had for one another.

Which made them all the more dangerous. Because if they didn't care about each other, then they couldn't be used against each other. Not the way the Ringers could.

"'Course we are, sweetheart," came the voice of the sole survivor, and Sakura, unable to see him clearly in the dark, heard his boots as he stepped over the bodies of his fallen partners. "Care to come with us? You'd save me a hell of a lot of trouble. Let me just take care of your boyfriend first."

Sakura was more than used to the salacious comments often hurled her way, by her fellow Ringers, by enemies, by perfect strangers. It simply came with the territory, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time an enemy attempted to sweet-talk her even while targeting her Family.

But there was something different about this guy. He sounded like he had a specific purpose in mind for her, and suddenly she was remembering things about the two-minute shootout she'd ignored in the heat of the moment:

None of the bullets came especially close to her. Not in a way that made her feel like she was even a target, not the way they fired relentlessly upon Shikamaru.

_They're not trying to kill me,_ she thought, eyes widening at the realization. _Shikamaru, yes, but not me…why?! I'm the Ringers' lieutenant, if they took out Neji I've got to be next on their list!_

"Put your gun down," came Shikamaru's voice, the same lazy drawl but edged with severity this time. He was a different person in a situation like this – cold, commanding, intense. They were at least fifteen feet apart now, having separated in the hopes of obtaining two vantage points from which to shoot. It was a logical position to take – they'd successfully killed three of the four would-be assailants, and now had two excellent shots on the fourth – but she hated being so far away from him. "And we won't kill you."

Sakura's heart pounded as she tried to puzzle out the man's reason for sparing her. _What could they want me for?_ she thought. _I'm Naruto's second. If they're with Madara, I should be dead already. They had a clear enough shot when my back was turned, if Shikamaru hadn't seen them…_

"Bet you're wondering why we haven't killed you yet, sweetheart," the man called, continuing to move through the restaurant, closer and closer to Shikamaru.

_He's got no qualms about killing him,_ Sakura thought, panicking. _I have to make this quick._

"The Boss wants a word with you," the man went on conversationally, and Sakura heard him reload.

"Who's your Boss?" she asked coolly, standing slowly from behind the counter and taking aim at his back. _Just say the word, you bastard. Confirm what I already know so I can blow your fucking head off._

"Madara," said the man. And Sakura, through the darkness, saw him take aim at where Shikamaru was crouched; with that one word, he signed his death warrant, and she fired three expert shots at the back of his head.

Shikamaru jumped to his feet as the man fell, joining his fellows in death, and when he ran to Sakura to make sure she was okay, she could see blood splattered across his face.

"Sakura, are you…"

"It _is_ Madara," she choked, adrenaline coursing painfully through her system as she tried to calm her heart down. "Damn it, this is it, this is happening…they were gonna take you out, Shikamaru!"

"But not you," he said, eyes narrowing as he surveyed the scene.

The possible ramifications of that were too ominous to consider at the moment. What, for example, Madara could want Sakura alive for. But there was no time to ponder that right now, as the familiar scream of police sirens shattered the tense silence that descended on the bullet-ridden remains of Ayame's All-Nighter.

"We have to get out of here," Shikamaru said sharply, calm and collected as ever. He shook her shoulders lightly. "C'mon, Sakura. Before the cops get here."

She let her terror and anger disappear, shelved for the time being, and nodded, professional and levelheaded as ever. Content that she'd gotten her shit together, Shikamaru gestured towards the back. "Let's go, out the back exit."

"Wait," she said, ducking by one of the bodies. She snatched the gun he still held onto in death and slid it inside her jacket. "Evidence," she explained, and Shikamaru nodded.

Then, they _flew._

* * *

The attack on Shikamaru and Sakura prompted an urgent meeting between the higher-ups of the Outer Ring. They made it safely to Naruto's apartment in the Tower, and were immediately joined by Kiba, Ino, and Kakashi, all of whom were close enough to the Tower that night to make it there quickly.

Naruto, predictably, fussed over Sakura the second she came inside, demanding to know that she was all right when he saw the blood stains on her clothes, and Shikamaru's. Once she convinced him that they were unhurt and that the blood belonged to their attackers, he was able to call the meeting to order.

"You're sure it was them?" Naruto demanded, pacing back and forth in his apartment.

"And that you weren't followed?" Ino pressed.

"We cleaned the scene," Sakura confirmed. "Same MO as with Neji. They gave Madara's name when we asked who they were."

"They wanted Sakura alive," Shikamaru revealed. "Gunned for me, but they tried to avoid her."

"Why the diner, though?" Ino wondered. "If they were following you, they would've seen you guys leave together, right? You'd've been easier to take down in the street!"

"It's Madara," Sakura emphasized. "Attacking us with civilians present ensured we wouldn't fight back until everyone was gone. Public, and with a ton of witnesses. That's how he operates."

"Fucking coward," Ino whispered, holding Sakura's hand on the sofa they shared.

"What could they want Sakura alive for?" Kakashi asked, contemplative as always. He stood against the bookcase with his arms folded, visible eye lost in thought. It was always a huge irony that Sakura trusted a man as implicitly as she trusted Kakashi, when she had never actually seen his face. He always wore a bandanna across his mouth and nose, and one of his eyes, lost in a knifefight years ago, was covered with a patch. Despite never knowing what he looked like, Sakura would put her life in Kakashi's hands; he'd been the father she'd never had.

"Maybe they think she can be used against Naruto," Kiba suggested, frowning as he sat on the armrest next to Sakura, smelling like smoke and anger. "Leverage."

Though it was a legitimate suggestion, Sakura _hated_ it. Just knowing that she could be used to control Naruto – the way it had once been with Sasuke – made her stomach ache.

"Maybe," Shikamaru said fairly. "But until we know for sure, Sakura, you go nowhere alone."

Alone. Freedom. Never free.

It was the right move. The logical move. Until they knew Madara's plan, it was suicide to wander around alone, the way she often did.

But God in heaven did she wish she'd ridden right the fuck past Konoha's city limits the other night.

* * *

"If Sakura finds out," Shikamaru said dryly, "she'll kill you."

"It's for her own good that I'm doing this," Naruto retorted, stuffing the gun she'd swiped from one of the would-be assassins into his jacket.

"She won't want you reaching out to Sasuke. Not when she was unable to get through to him."

"I don't want his shithead uncle coming after her again. I'll do what I have to do."

"It's a miracle she made it back here in one piece," Shikamaru snapped, losing his patience at last. "It's probably only because Sasuke's still got a sweet spot for her that he didn't kill her himself. You're his _chief enemy._ Ever stop to think that he won't pull his gun?"

"It's a risk I gotta take, man. We can't do this without him."

Shikamaru looked at Sakura, sleeping soundly on the couch with her head in a sleeping Ino's lap, and knew that Naruto was right.

* * *

**note..** i have such a good time with this story, man. hope you liked it.

xoxo daisy :)


	5. Influence

_Then_

Sasuke made sure her eyes stayed on him the whole time, but she barely even flinched at the pain.

Sai's work was always quick and efficient, and the tattoo she was getting was important, but not overly complicated. Not to mention, Sakura had always had a very high threshold for pain. A little thing like two rings around her bicep wouldn't have brought her down.

"C'mon, what're you worried about?" she laughed, as Sai wiped the streaking black ink from her arm and finished his linework. "It's a _tattoo._ Same as you guys have. It's about time I got mine."

He knew she was right about that, and now at 16, she was a full-fledged member of the Outer Ring. This was a mark of honor, a badge of belonging. It signified physically what was true for Sakura emotionally.

Sasuke hated every second of it.

Seeing the harsh, deceptively-beautiful mark on her delicate-looking arm looked so out of place. Like her flawless skin wasn't meant to carry the brand of their bloody industry. He knew more than anyone how much Sakura wanted to leave this all behind, but here she was, accepting the tattoo that would declare her a permanent member of the Outer Ring. No longer an innocent child under their protection, but one of them herself.

"It's my choice, Sasuke," she said softly, her voice almost inaudible over the jarring buzz of Sai's needle.

_No it's not,_ he thought, glaring at the twin rings slowly coming to life on her bicep. His hand itched towards his own, but he resisted the urge to rub the tattoo he'd gotten a year before. _You think it is, but you never had a choice._

* * *

Later that night, at her flat, Sasuke was on his way to bed when he spotted her examining her reflection in the mirror on her closet. He'd stop short of saying 'admiring,' because she was staring at her brand new tattoo from different angles almost clinically, like she was assessing the severity of a wound.

The skin around it was still red and inflamed, and he knew the itchiness would set in after awhile. But Sakura just looked at it, curiously blank, before meeting his eyes in the mirror.

"Sai did a great job," she said neutrally. "It's a lot cleaner than Naruto's."

The tattoo looked disturbingly beautiful on her skin, but what it represented made Sasuke sick to his stomach. He'd been too late. Perhaps not by Sakura's standards, but by his own.

He placed his hands gingerly on her shoulders to avoid brushing against the tender skin on her bicep, and pulled her back against him. The comforting warmth of her bare back on his chest gave him pause, and he murmured softly in her ear, "I'm sorry."

He watched her sparkling eyes dim, her brows knit in confusion in the mirror. "For what?"

"I thought I'd have you out of here before you needed to get this."

His fingertips ghosted lightly over the sensitive skin and she flinched, most likely from the unexpected impact of his words.

"It's my choice, Sasuke," she said, repeating what she'd said to him at Sai's earlier that day. "It's not up to you to save me. I know what I'm doing."

"This was never meant for you. This life. You deserved better."

"I can't leave," she murmured. "Not until my debt's paid, and I'm years away from that."

"Naruto doesn't hold you to what your father owes his. And they're both dead, Sakura. Nothing's holding you here except yourself."

Her eyes saddened at that, and he regretted speaking so harshly with her. Sakura's reasons were confusing to him – he knew she deserved much better than life as a Ringer – but she refused to compromise her morals. And while that frustrated him, it also earned her his respect. She knew she had the ability to leave the gang whenever she wanted to – knew that Naruto wouldn't stop her – but she stayed because she believed she owed him. And nothing would stop her from working off her debt, and leaving the right way.

Then, she smiled, turning her head to press a sweet, tender kiss to the hollow of his throat.

"When we get out of here," she said, and it was always 'when' with her, not 'if,' "what do you see us doing?"

"Dangerous to talk like that, Sakura," he murmured, letting his hands travel her slight curves, inhaling her intoxicating scent. And it was. The only way out of the gang life was death, and they both knew it.

Sakura never let that fact affect her.

"How 'bout college?" she suggested happily, spinning so that she faced him, her back to her own reflection and her focus away from her healing tattoo. "You see us at college?"

He sighed, then smirked as he kissed her forehead. "Police Academy," he said, half-joking. "For me, anyway. You can go to college."

Sakura laughed. "I can _totally_ see you as a cop, Sasuke. I mean, the fact that you're like a hardcore gangster aside."

"That might not look great on my application," he conceded, unable to fight the grin that was threatening on his lips. He pulled her back down onto her bed and kissed her deeply, but he was unable to distract her from the recitation of her dreams, now that they'd started.

"It'd be hard for awhile," she said, letting him kiss her jaw instead, green eyes wide and happy as she stared at the ceiling. "We'd have to get jobs. Real jobs. I could…I could wait tables and take classes at night. You know? I don't know how good a waitress I'd be but enough to make a living. And we could move away from here, leave all this shit behind, get some…some grungy apartment down south and work our asses off the way other people do. I'd love it, Sasuke. I'd _love it_."

"Someday," Sasuke told her, hoping he wasn't making a promise he couldn't someday deliver. Then he pulled her on top of him and waited for the darkening of her eyes. And no more words were said.

* * *

"Shipment go through, man?" Kiba asked, eyes finding Sasuke in the darkness. Such a cliché place to meet, under a flickering streetlight.

"Aa," Sasuke replied easily as he lit a cigarette. "Asuma met us at the dropoff."

"Good. That money's gonna pay for a new wing at the hospital."

Sasuke smirked. "Nothing like financing a new hospital wing with stolen drug money."

Kiba chuckled at the irony of it before clapping his friend on the shoulder. "Drug money stolen by a bunch of sixteen-year-old kids," he added. "Dude, let's get going. Kakashi's been weird lately about us runnin' around at night."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed. "Since when do you listen to Kakashi?"

"You know he's been all edgy since we tatted Sakura yesterday."

_He's not the only one,_ thought Sasuke with an ill-concealed grimace, as he fell into step beside Kiba on their way back to the Tower.

"I know you can't like it much, either," Kiba went on, watching as Sasuke tossed his finished cigarette carelessly into the street. "That she's one of us now."

"She's always been one of us." The recitation sounded lame and rehearsed.

"Well, yeah, of course. But not like _this._ Now she's…recognized, and everything. I know it can't be easy on you."

"If I have my way," Sasuke said arrogantly, "she won't have to play a part in this shit at all."

"That's not her way, dude. To just sit around and let all of us run the business."

"She's better than all of us." Sasuke's voice was clipped and sharp, like jagged rocks. He disliked having this conversation and resented that his real feelings were now on display. Weakness, rawness, honesty, these were things Sasuke struggled with every day of his life. "Don't forget that."

Kiba nodded like he understood and folded his arms behind his head as they walked. "All them girls are," he sighed. "Ino, and Hinata. Tenten. Hell, even that nutass Anko. They deserve better than this shit."

Sasuke wouldn't argue with that. It was always a sobering subject, discussing their lives as Ringers. Even with their gang's historic policy of nonviolence, they'd all been recruited to do things they didn't want to do at some point or other. Things that challenged their morals, their consciences, things that were against the law; Sasuke didn't like to think about all the fights he'd gotten into, all the people he'd hurt, doing what he had to do in order to survive and take care of his loved ones.

What people didn't understand about gangbangers was that almost none of them joined a gang for the thrill of it.

People joined gangs because they had nowhere else to go.

His parents had been killed when he was very young, and Kakashi, a family friend, had taken him in. Recruited him into the Outer Ring to give him a family. He'd been indoctrinated ever since he was six years old, and this was the only life he knew.

The same was true for Sakura. He remembered the day Naruto had run back to the Tower, seven years old and as boisterous and loud as he'd always been, a skinny little girl in tow. He'd gone right to his father, who was head of the Outer Ring at the time, introduced the shy girl as Sakura his new friend, and immediately demanded that all the other kids be nice to her.

Sasuke had been friends with her ever since, a friendship that slowly, surely, strongly evolved into something much, much stronger over the years. Now, she was his family, his everything, but whenever he looked at her, he remembered the innocent little girl who'd shown up starving and alone all those years ago.

And he couldn't help but wish Naruto had taken her to a fucking orphanage instead.

"But what're you gonna do?" Kiba chuckled with a resigned shrug.

_Take her out of here the second we can afford it,_ Sasuke thought.

"Nothing you can do, I guess," Sasuke said.

* * *

Two days it had been since Sakura's official initiation, and Sasuke found it easy to ignore the tattoo's presence when she kept her arm covered. Hidden underneath a slimming leather jacket, it wasn't difficult to pretend like it simply wasn't there, and that she was unblemished, untouched by the darkness and violence that claimed the rest of her Family.

Sakura acted no different in the aftermath. She was as happy-go-lucky as ever, as dizzily happy to be near him, as optimistic that there was a future for her beyond the parameters of the two rings on her bicep. He found himself dragged to a Naruto-orchestrated dinner at one of the Ringer-run restaurants downtown. It was the idiot's girlfriend's birthday.

"You know it wouldn't kill you to _smile_ every once in awhile," Sakura giggled, elbowing him lightly in the side.

"It's cold," he offered as an excuse. Group dinners simply weren't his thing, something Sakura knew all too well.

"It's Hinata's _birthday,_" she said. "You can suck it up and deal with it for one night. Besides, I'll make it up to you later."

The suggestion in her voice was low and unmistakable, and a slow smirk stretched across his lips. He draped an arm lazily around her shoulders and pulled her into his side, already anticipating his promised reward for tolerating the evening.

"Oh, look, there they are!" Sakura said brightly, pointing across the street. Naruto and Hinata were coming from the opposite direction towards the restaurant on the corner. "They look, like, _awesome_ together, don't they?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura's delight for their friends' long-awaited hook-up was charming, but unnecessary. Guys didn't care how cute another couple looked.

"And I know guys don't care about how cute another couple looks," Sakura conceded, making him wonder if she could read his mind, "but…wait, Sasuke, who's that?"

He followed the direction of her finger to a white van pulling up to the sidewalk, the tires screeching as it came to a sudden halt several yards from Naruto and Hinata.

"_Shit!_" Sasuke spat, realizing within nanoseconds what was going on.

His hand plunged into his jacket, withdrawing a sleek, deadly pistol; at his sudden movement, Sakura did the same thing and they both took off running.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke shouted, desperate to get his friend's attention.

Naruto's head snapped up from across the street at Sasuke's yell; he looked confused for a moment, seeing Sasuke and Sakura, weapons drawn, racing towards them, then looked around at the white van idling beside them.

Then, gunfire.

Naruto realized what was happening at last, and Sasuke watched as he threw himself at Hinata, tackling her to the sidewalk and shielding her body with his own.

"He's not armed!" Sakura screamed, explaining why Naruto hadn't whipped out a gun and fired back at the van full of assailants. "Sasuke, he's not armed! _Damn it!_"

Even at a run, Sasuke was the best marksman in the Outer Ring. Ignoring the cars swerving around them as they raced across the street, he fired three expert shots at the shooters, taking down each one in turn.

"Cover them, Sakura!" he commanded, yanking another gun out from inside his jacket and throwing it to her. She caught it deftly, ducking around a spray of gunfire aimed her way like a cat.

_Like hell,_ he thought, lip curling, as he savagely dispatched the man firing at his girlfriend with three deadly-accurate bullets to his head.

He heard Sakura's sharp heels smacking against the sidewalk as she raced to do as he'd instructed, providing some much-needed cover for the unarmed Naruto and Hinata.

And Sasuke readied himself to kill every last one of the shooters.

Four were dead already, but two remained, their faces hidden by skimasks. Apparently identifying Sasuke as the lieutenant, armed and deadly the way Naruto – their intended target – wasn't, they seemed to think twice, and dove back into their van.

"Let's go!" one of them yelled, shoving his dead brother out of the way as he threw himself into the driver's seat.

"H-Hinata?" he heard Sakura gasp from behind, taking aim at the driver as he threw the van into drive. Registering the panic in her voice, he chanced a glance behind him, and felt his blood run cold. "Hinata? _HINATA!"_

Hinata was cradled protectively in Naruto's arms, pale skin even whiter under the glowing streetlamp. Sakura knelt over both of them, gun drawn to defend them from the masked shooters, but her eyes were wide and filled with tears.

Sasuke saw the blood on the sidewalk, heard Sakura's horrified screams, and risked looking at Naruto's face.

He held her tightly, blue eyes wide and dead-looking, blood from a single bulletwound to his girlfriend's chest staining his orange jacket. He was trembling. The devastation, the shock, the rage, the horror was too much for him to process at the moment.

Sasuke allowed himself to internalize Naruto's grief; his best friend couldn't do what needed to be done, so he would. Viciously, remorselessly, he fired one shot at the front tire of the van now screeching away from the restaurant, then turned his back on it, not needing to look to know it hit its mark as he made his way to the devastation on the sidewalk. The unmistakable sound of the van spinning out of control and crashing into a building told him the two survivors were dead.

A crowd was gathering now outside the restaurant, where Naruto still held Hinata; Sakura knelt beside them, gun still drawn, shoulders shaking. Sasuke's anger momentarily quelled as he joined them, placing one hand on the small of Sakura's back as he dropped to his knees next to her.

Hinata was white as a sheet, her pale eyes cloudy and dreamy. Blood continued to blossom from the wound on her chest – Naruto hadn't been quick enough to protect her.

"It's…it's okay, Naruto," she whispered, her voice faint. Sasuke recognized the distinctive sound of a person's dying declaration, having seen it so many times before.

But nothing like this.

"I…I thought we'd…Hinata I'm…you can't leave me, Hinata!" Naruto choked, his voice desperate and wild as he tightened his hold on her. "SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE! SOMEONE CALL 911!"

"It's too late for that," Hinata said softly, smiling as Naruto's tears drenched her hair. "You'll be fine, Naruto. It'll be okay."

"Don't say that, don't you dare say that to me!" Naruto shouted, his grief so painful Sasuke felt it, too. "Don't you give up, Hinata, you can't leave me! I won't let you! Someone! _ANYONE_ call 911, _please!_"

There was a flurry of cell phones in the crowd around them, everyone calling the authorities to get some help, but Sasuke knew it wouldn't matter. The bullet had struck Hinata in the heart, and she'd simply lost too much blood. That she hadn't been killed instantly was a miracle.

His hand tightened into a fist on Sakura's back, clenching around the leather of her jacket, as if to remind him that she was still there.

Hinata smiled and turned to Sakura; Sakura grabbed her free hand, her fingers trembling as she released her gun.

"Take care of him," she said softly. "Both of you," she added, glancing at Sasuke meaningfully. "He's gonna…he's gonna need somone to look out for him."

"It's gonna be you!" Naruto screamed, even as Sakura, sobbing, nodded in affirmation, squeezing her friend's hand. "It's gonna be you who's lookin' out for me, it's gotta be you, Hinata! Don't do this, don't leave me! Stay here! Stay with me! I love you, Hinata, I fucking love you, you can't…you can't do this!"

His voice cracked and failed him as Hinata looked up at him, and Sasuke was struck by the adoration in her graying eyes. She looked at Naruto – the boy who hadn't been quick enough to save her – with so much love and reverence that he almost couldn't believe it. And she was going. Naruto would never recover from this.

"I won't leave you, ever," Hinata promised weakly, lifting her head to press chapped lips to Naruto's cheek. "I love you. I'm so glad I'm with you. I'm so glad you're here right now. Take care and be strong and never give up, Naruto."

"Hinata? Hinata don't close your eyes, don't…just…no, no, no, this isn't happening! This can't…this can't be _happening,_ HINATA!"

Paramedics arrived on the scene two minutes later.

Two minutes too late.

_Now_

Sasuke shook his head, trying to clear the memories that kept calling to him from locked boxes in the back of his heart.

Inevitable, that Sakura's sudden reappearance in his life would incite all this madness.

There was no sense in thinking back to those times. Back to when his loyalty had been to all the wrong people. Back to when seeing a girl's arm marked with gang tattoos had been almost as horrifying as watching a friend bleed out on the street, victim of senseless gang violence.

His loyalty was to The Hawk now, and it had to stay there. Thinking on old feelings, on how that day he would gladly have taken eight bullets to the head if it meant protecting Sakura, avenging his best friend, there was no sense in allowing all of that to come crawling back to the forefront of his focus. Sakura had moved on. Naruto had moved on. The Outer Ring was dying, and Sasuke refused to interfere.

He sat on the stoop outside his apartment building, arms folded as he allowed himself to really, truly think.

His conversation with Orochimaru hadn't helped matters. Now he was nearly convinced that Madara wouldn't be satisfied with Konoha alone; he'd turn his attention on Oto next, and Sasuke couldn't allow that to happen. Even with the streetgangs in Oto unified under one flag for once, they were hopelessly outgunned in comparison to his uncle's almost unstoppable force of gangbangers. If Konoha fell, it was likely that Oto wouldn't be far behind.

Sakura's idea – while asinine at first – was intriguing. Perhaps if The Hawk joined forces with the Outer Ring, they might be able to stand a chance against Akatsuki.

But the idea of serving them again, of saving them from a fate they fucking _deserved_, made him sick to his stomach. Could he really do that? Could he really return to the city of his roots, turn his gun on his own uncle, protect the people who'd profited off Itachi Uchiha's death?

_I showed them mercy,_ he thought furiously, thinking of Sakura's disgusted expression at his blatant refusal to help her. _I corralled the Oto gangs. We don't fight with Ringers anymore. I spared them already. I owe them nothing more than that._

The circle hanging from a chain around his neck had never felt heavier than it did at this moment. Instinctively, he reached up and grabbed hold of it, until the metal bit tightly into the skin of his palm.

_And for her to show up here expecting anything beyond that…_

But she _hadn't_ expected anything else, an irritating voice in the back of his head reminded him. His rejection, while doubtlessly disappointing, hadn't come as a shock to a newer, icier Sakura Haruno. She'd taken it in stride, offered him a bit of departing advice, and vanished on the goddamn bike as quickly as she'd come.

He didn't know why that rankled him so badly, her stony acceptance of his answer.

Maybe because the Sakura of memory would have reacted very differently. She would have begged him, screamed at him, hit him, flew into a rage until he saw her way; this new Sakura clearly had a better rein on her emotions. Her eyes were frosty, her pretty pink lips firm. She carried herself differently, too. With a self-assurance that both angered and turned him on.

Who was she, to survive without him?

_It's what you wanted,_ that same annoying voice chimed in. _You left her with noble intentions, Sasuke. Who are you to hate her for moving forward?_

He halted that train of thought right there.

This wasn't about his personal feelings towards Sakura Haruno. That story was over, and he himself had closed the book. To open it again, to reexamine it from any other angle, would serve no purpose but to weaken his own resolve.

No. This was about the safety of his new Family.

He slipped a cigarette from the pack inside his jacket, then fished around in his pocket for a lighter.

"Need a light, dude?" asked a chillingly familiar voice, achingly cheerful, absurdly optimistic.

The whiz in the air clued Sasuke in to the lighter flying at his head; he caught it smoothly and kept his face completely clear, as the second unwanted ghost from his past materialized in front of him. Clad in orange and as gratingly positive as he'd always been.

"Should've known you'd be here, too," Sasuke said, a cold smirk twisting his lips in the darkness.

"Naruto."

* * *

"_You gonna take me away from all this?" She smiled up at him from where they stood on the Red Bridge near the Tower. Beautiful, with the moonlight overhead and the streetlights and the city behind her, dazzling in her optimism, teasing all the way._

_He smirked by way of answer, and let his arm fall heavy around her shoulders._

_A resounding 'I swear' echoed in the silence between them._

* * *

**note..** hi y'all :)

i have so much fuckin fun with this story, you have no clue. let me know if you liked it PLEASE. :)

xoxo daisy :)


	6. Girls

"You're kidding me," Sakura snarled, driving her fist into the punching bag so hard, the chain trembled.

"You can't be surprised," Shikamaru drawled, arms folded. "After what you pulled."

She knew he was right, but that didn't make this any less ridiculous. Sweat ran in rivers down her face as she swung a merciless roundhouse kick at the punching bag, releasing a cry of anger and effort at the same time.

"Ease up," Shikamaru advised with a chuckle. "Before you have to add another punching bag to the list of shit you owe Naruto."

"Not _funny._" She punctuated the last word with a savage back-kick.

"Chill out, Sakura," Ino sighed. "You knew this was coming."

Sakura had just found out Naruto's whereabouts – he'd expressly warned the others not to tell her where he was going until morning, when it would be too late for her to follow him. Just knowing that not only Naruto, but the rest of her Family, was handling her with kid gloves was enough to send her over the edge.

One more ruthless punch tore through the material on the punching bag, sending a river of sand rushing to the floor of the gym.

Finally pausing to take a breath, she stepped away from the damage she'd caused and attempted to calm her breathing.

"Sasuke turned me down," she hissed, spitting the name with as much venom as she possibly could, heart pounding, lightheaded from her merciless workout. "Without even a thought. He wants nothing to do with _any _of us. Why the _hell_ would Naruto go back to Oto after we already have his fucking answer?"

Ino giggled. "Because he's _Naruto._"

Sakura found her best friend's amusement more than a little irritating, and was in half a mind to demonstrate her next roundhouse kick on Ino's pretty blonde head when Shikamaru clapped a heavy hand on her shoulder.

"You're tense," he observed needlessly.

"No _shit._" Her teeth were clenched as she glared at both of them. Nobody seemed to understand how she felt, what she was going through; they were patronizing her, light-handling her, _ignoring_ her. Angrier than she could remember feeling in a long time, she recoiled from Shikamaru's touch.

"That attack yesterday at the diner," Shikamaru said levelly, "was meant for you, Sakura. Naruto isn't about to take something like that lightly. Madara raised the stakes. He knows our backs are against the wall. It's imperative that Naruto convinces Sasuke to join us."

"As if he would!" Sakura hissed, disgusted by everyone's blind faith in Sasuke Uchiha. "What makes you think he'll listen to _Naruto?_ What makes you think he'll suddenly grow a fucking heart and come back here?"

"Because of _you,_ stupid," Ino snapped, apparently fed up with Sakura's ceaseless temper tantrum.

Sakura's furious gaze settled on her best friend, shocked at what she'd heard.

"_What did you just say?_"

"Oh, wake up, idiot. Or I'll _wake_ you up."

The challenge was not lost on Sakura as both girls, pissed off and frustrated for varying reasons, immediately faced one another in the wrestling ring. Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's closest friend, was also her favorite sparring partner because she was the only one in the Outer Ring who never held back. And right now, that was _exactly_ what Sakura needed.

She vaguely heard Kiba and Chouji join Shikamaru watching from the sidelines, and the familiar hushed frenzy as they placed bets on the two girls.

They would feel her unfettered fury next.

"Sasuke knew when he left us that you'd be safe here," Ino said sharply, aiming a volley of punches Sakura's way; catlike, she dodged each one expertly, adrenaline fueling her exhausted muscles as she swung a kick at Ino's chest.

Ino blocked it with both arms raised in a crisscross position over her generous bosom, then launched herself at Sakura, tackling her to the mat.

Taking advantage of the fact that Sakura was temporarily winded, Ino negotiated her into a headlock and snapped, "Now you're gonna fucking listen to me. I know you're pissed and I know you're scared. And I know bringing up Sasuke again is the last thing you wanna do. But you're pissing me off with this constant bitchfest and it's gonna _stop._"

Knowing Ino had a point didn't quell Sakura's rage. She dug her elbow hard into Ino's stomach and with a wheeze, Ino released her; Sakura immediately flipped the blonde onto her back and dug her knee hard into Ino's throat to subdue her.

"You're all _fools_ to believe Sasuke would come back here because of _me,_" Sakura choked, breathing hard from Ino's stranglehold. "I tried, didn't I? He didn't even _hesitate_ to say no."

Ino flailed her legs and managed to buck Sakura off. In the span of a few seconds, she had Sakura slammed facedown on the mat, one of her arms twisted ruthlessly behind her back.

_Damn it,_ thought Sakura, furious, as her best friend wove her free hand tightly through her pink ponytail to keep her still.

"Like I was _saying,_" Ino sniffed, twisting her arm even further until she cried out in pain, "since _this_ is the only way to get your fucking _attention,_ Sasuke left here knowing you'd be safe with all of us. That's the _only_ way he would've abandoned you. He's always been like that with you. Your safety meant more to him than anything."

"You're fucking…"

"Shut up! He turned you down because he didn't believe what you were saying. And he'll come back once Naruto tells him that Madara's gunning for _you,_ because you're the only thing Sasuke's ever really, truly cared about. And for as much as it _kills you,_ you need to chill the fuck out and wait for him to get back here because newsflash, Sakura: _he's coming._ You know Naruto won't leave until he agrees."

Sakura took a few seconds to regain her breath before using the flexibility she was notorious for; she arched her back and brought her legs up behind her head, wrestling Ino off of her; her best friend hit the mat with a sickening thud and both girls lay next to each other, breathing heavily and stunned.

"A tie," she heard Shikamaru decide, followed by twin groans as Kiba and Chouji each paid him off.

Sakura sat up, massaging her arm, and sighed, feeling all the fight leave her. Her anger receded, surely to be awoken at some point in the future, but quelled for the time being. Instead, she was left with the truest emotion coursing through her, underneath all her rage and frustration:

Fear.

"We need Sasuke," she admitted, her voice small and shaky. "But…but what am I supposed to do if he comes back here? I almost lost it when I saw him the other night. He…he makes me…I can't _think_ when I'm around him. I'm irrational. I'm unpredictable. He's…"

"He's your special boy," Ino finished with a smile, yanking her friend into a bone-crushing hug. Sakura sagged against her, winded and tired, and let Ino play with the hair she'd been trying to rip out ten seconds ago. "We all get like that around our special boys."

Ino, the most promiscuous girl in the Family, spoke like she knew from experience, and if she did, then it was the only secret she'd ever kept from Sakura.

"C'mon, let's hit the showers," Ino said after a few moments, aware that the boys were still watching them, and had gone from placing bets on who would kick the other's ass to making obscene finger-and-tongue gestures with the girls in such a position. "You're pretty as hell but you smell like a truck driver."

* * *

Sakura, showered and changed and heading to the autoshop that night, wished she could shake feeling so out of control as easily as she could shake her so-called 'security detail.'

Naruto had mandated that, in the aftermath of the would-be kidnapping at Ayame's All-Nighter, she couldn't be left alone for any reason, and so he'd assigned Izumo and Kotetsu to shadow her in his absence.

Well, too bad for Naruto that she was infinitely cleverer than the two lunkheads he'd put on the job, and she'd thrown them off her scent in ten minutes.

_I'm not some pampered little princess who needs a security detail,_ she thought irritably, glaring at the pointed toes of her boots as she ambled down the street. _I'm the second-in-command of the biggest gang in the city and I'm always packing._

Still, though, they treated her like a pampered little princess. Everyone did. And Sakura never understood why.

She was an official, ordained Ringer, wasn't she? She had the tattoo. She had the gun. She was the best mechanic in the Family, the fastest bike rider, the cleverest, after Shikamaru, of course. She'd never lost a fight. She'd never failed a mission. She'd killed before; there was blood on her hands, same as the rest of them.

But none of it – not even her position as Naruto's number two – made a bit of difference to her friends, who still saw her as this dainty, fragile little thing who needed to be protected all the time.

Even now, they were handling her like a dangerous explosive set to go off at any given time. Naruto had told everybody else he was going to Oto to attempt to negotiate with Sasuke, then decreed that nobody tell her until the last minute, when it was too late to stop him.

Was that any way to treat one's second-in-command? With less confidence, with less trust, than anybody else?

Sakura was torn in so many directions that she felt like she was coming apart at the seams. You wouldn't know it to look at her, with her face impassive and makeup perfectly applied, her relaxed pose with her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. A quick glance at her reflection in a store window as she passed revealed what she wanted to look like: calm, cool, collected.

Inside, she felt like her world was caving in around her and she didn't have enough mortar to patch up all the holes.

_I need to do something,_ she thought. _I can do something. I HAVE to do something. I'm restless. I can't just sit here waiting for the next thing to happen to me. I need to be in control of it. I need to get ahead of it. Whatever is coming, I have to be ready._

Her inaction in Konoha was driving her crazy. At least when she'd snuck out to Oto, dangerous and reckless though it was, she'd felt like she was in control. Actually _doing_ something, compared to twiddling her thumbs waiting for Madara to exterminate her friends. Making a move.

Ultimately failing, of course, but at least it had been _something._

But this uncertainty was killing her.

_Waiting on Gaara, waiting on Naruto, waiting on Sasuke,_ she thought, frowning. _Unable to do anything until we hear from them, until we figure out what's going through their heads…I can't take this. We need a plan. We need SOMETHING._

It was an elementary mistake, to let her guard down in her profession, but Sakura was so lost in her own internal frustrations that she didn't hear footsteps approaching her from behind.

As she passed by a darkened alleyway, that's when it happened.

She felt a bruising pressure around her throat as she was wrestled off the street into the alley. Despite her earlier exhaustion, her instincts flared to life; pissed at herself for lowering her defenses, she registered what was happening to her.

Someone was dragging her off, someone with a very strong grip around her throat. She smelled candy perfume and realized it was a _woman._ And like hell would she let alone take her down – this attack, abrasive, crude, and pathetically ill-timed, was exactly what she needed.

_You picked the wrong day and the wrong bitch,_ she thought with a sadistic smirk.

She snatched the unknown woman's wrist and bent it back at an obscene angle, freeing herself; in the next instant, she swung a merciless uppercut into the woman's jaw, sending her flying back against the brick wall behind her.

"Shit!" the woman snarled, as Sakura seized her gun from inside her jacket and pointed it directly between two familiar, glasses-covered eyes the color of wine.

"_Karin?_"

Sure enough, swollen jaw and everything, there stood one of her old friends, glaring back at her from underneath her choppy red bangs. Taller than Sakura and as fiercely pretty as she remembered.

"What the hell?" Sakura snapped, lowering her gun. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, so you can cross over into our territory but I can't do the same to yours?" Karin rubbed her bruising jaw and smirked. "Jesus, girl. You hit like a monster. I have no clue why Sasuke's so worried about you taking care of yourself."

Hating how frequently his name was coming up lately, Sakura ran a hand through her hair.

"How'd you know I went to Oto?" she asked. "Did Sasuke tell you?"

"As if he would," Karin scoffed, folding her arms. "You were seen by one of our spotters. Your bike stands out quite a bit, Sakura. It was risky coming onto our turf."

"So I've been told. By everyone."

"I cornered Sasuke and he came out with it. I know why you came…and I think you're right. I think you're right about Madara, and The Hawk, and the Outer Ring. How it's all connected."

Sakura couldn't believe this was happening. Karin was Naruto's cousin, and she'd grown up in Konoha with the rest of them before getting herself into a spot of trouble with Orochimaru. The details were muddied and confusing, and Sakura hadn't seen her in years; the last she knew, Sasuke had had Orochimaru sent to prison and Karin was free from whatever she owed him.

She wasn't quite sure why she put her gun away, with Karin's current status as a member of the Ringers' enemy gang, but something in Karin's face put her at ease. She recognized the expression flaring in the other girl's eyes as something that had made itself quite comfortable inside her lately…

Desperation.

The same desperation that had urged Sakura to sneak into enemy territory to appeal to her ex-boyfriend.

"That doesn't explain why you're here," said Sakura quietly, checking to make sure no one was listening at the mouth of the alleyway, but all was clear.

Karin huffed as she fussed over her swollen jaw. "Damn it, it'll take _weeks_ for this to go down. Look, Sakura. Sasuke probably didn't tell you this but the night you came to talk to him, my ex-boyfriend was attacked."

Sakura cocked an eyebrow and waited for her former friend to continue.

"We don't know who it was," Karin elaborated. "Just that they were pro's. Suigetsu's okay but just barely and it could've been so much _worse,_ and…"

Sakura knew exactly what it was like, to be a gangster's girlfriend. The constant state of unknowing, the endless worry, the frustration, the manic anger…

The desperate moves you'd make to protect them.

That was why Karin was here, and that was why Sakura trusted her.

"Sasuke's got to know that whatever's happening here in Konoha is starting to happen in Oto," Karin finished, halting whatever tears threatened behind black horn-rimmed glasses. "And I don't know if anyone in the universe knows the reasons why he hates this place so much…" Sakura's stomach clenched painfully at that statement. "…but you know more than anyone else how stubborn he is."

Sakura ran a hand through her hair as she mulled all this over. She'd given Sasuke a warning about what Madara potentially had in store for The Hawk, and it seemed like it had already begun.

"I'm here because I think you're right," Karin said softly. "And we need to help each other, or everything we've built is…look, Sakura, I can't let Suigetsu die. Okay? He's everything. He is _everything_ to me and I won't pretend like this gang life is more important to me than he is."

Sakura knew she was right to trust Karin.

"Well if you know that I came to Oto to talk to Sasuke, and if you know what I asked him, then you also know his answer for me. Naruto left last night to see him so maybe he'll have better luck with him than I did, but…"

"Word on the streets is that Madara's gunning for you," Karin said simply. "Once Sasuke hears that…that'll be all the reason he needs to come back here."

It was the same thing Ino had said earlier, the same thing the boys seemed so sure of. But Sakura couldn't believe in it. She couldn't believe that after everything Sasuke had done, everything he'd turned his back on, even after hearing her beg him back with her own voice, that he had even the slightest reason to return to Konoha.

So why did everyone else seem so sure?

"He left me, Karin." Her voice was weaker than she wanted it to be. "And he never came back before this. He doesn't care anymore, if he ever even did. So…"

Karin cut her off with a bark of a laugh. Still the same blunt, brash girl she'd always been growing up.

"See, this is what gets me about you. You knew Sasuke better than any of us did, and you're still so _blind._"

"I'm not in the mood for guessing games, damn it! What are you _talking_ about?"

"I'm talking about how you think Sasuke up and left you without any reason whatsoever, and that he'd ever take one step away from you without making sure you were safe. He knew you'd be safe here without him…till now. And once he realizes that Madara can – and will – get to you, he'll be back in seconds."

"I wish I could believe that, Karin."

"Well believe it, babe. And if he's got my brainless cousin over there trying to get him home, it's as good as done. But in the meantime, take _this._"

She tossed something Sakura's way from inside her jacket; Sakura caught it in one hand and looked down to see it was a sleek silver cell phone.

"Right now," Karin murmured, "you're the only Ringer I can trust. Your connection with Sasuke was enough, but you proved your shit when you went to Oto to warn us. And even though I want to help you, I know that there are a lot of Hawks who don't, and who'd gun you down the second they saw you. So for now, until the smoke clears in Oto and we can figure shit out…"

"This is how we stay in touch," Sakura finished, understanding.

"My number's programmed in there. So's Sasuke's. The phone's untraceable, so don't let anyone know you've got it. In case of emergencies and everything. You hear information I need to hear, you let me know and vice versa."

"Got it."

"I'll work on my Family, you work on yours," Karin said. "And we'll see if we can figure this out. And if we can't…"

"Then we're all gonna die," Sakura sighed with an ironic giggle.

Karin hesitated, then pulled Sakura into a hug. "I missed you, babe," she murmured. "And I'll tell you everything that happened, why I left, blah blah blah, once all this shit calms down. Thank you. _Thank you_ for helping us."

Sakura hugged her back and smiled into fire-engine red hair, blindsided and elated by this unexpected ally. A friend she never thought she'd be able to see again appeared in her life. Karin, a high-ranking Hawk, believed in Sakura's idea to join forces and wanted to make it happen.

This was _exactly_ what she'd needed. Something to _do._

"I'll let you know if anything else happens," Sakura promised as they broke apart, looking for all the world like two silly teenage girls home for summer break. "To get out of here, take Prospect to the freeway. Plenty of cops. We steer clear."

"Thanks, babe."

Karin turned to leave, just as quickly as she'd come, and Sakura hesitated only a moment.

"Wait!"

She turned back around with her eyebrows raised as Sakura asked the taboo question. The one she'd promised herself she would never ask, because she'd told herself she wouldn't care about the answer.

"Is he…is he happy there?"

She didn't know what she wanted Karin's answer to be. She didn't know if she wanted to hear, "No, he's miserable," because it would serve him fucking right for betraying them. And she didn't know if she wanted to hear, "Yes, of course," because even if she hated him, she still wanted good things for him.

Instead Karin smiled kind of wistfully, and withdrew her car keys from her jacket. "As happy as he'll ever be," she said.

It hurt, but she was used to it. Sakura nodded and followed Karin out of the alley, turning down the street away from her old friend. And just quickly enough to miss the end of Karin's response:

"…without you."

* * *

**note..** hey hey hey there. had a blast last night at the bar because they played 'telephone' and i got to do my gaga dance for the public and i wonder if maybe i should just drop out of medical school and be a bar skank professionally.

i love writing this sakura, i love writing this universe, i love it and i'm having fun with it and it's the story i'm updating fastest/most frequently because i fucking feel like it. so i hope you enjoyed it and if you did, let me know! keeps me motivated, yadig.

saturday night, dumplings! havefunbesafeiloveyou!

xoxo daisy :)


	7. Return

Sasuke was annoyed to see his old friend in his territory, but he couldn't say it was unexpected.

After Sakura's ballsy (insane) move the other night, and what he'd learned from Orochimaru about what was going on in Konoha, it was the next logical step that Naruto show up in person to try and reason with him.

But it didn't make it any less irritating.

Naruto looked about the same as he always had, tall and burly, nowhere near tough-looking enough to run a street gang, and yet that was exactly what he did, who he was. The same optimistic blue eyes, entirely devoid of any contempt for him the way _hers_ had been, and a stupid grin on his stupid face, wearing his signature stupid orange T-shirt under a jacket.

A motorcycle helmet was clutched under his arm as his grin widened.

"Hey, man. Thought I'd find you here."

Sasuke studied him for a moment before lifting the lighter he'd just been tossed to get a new cigarette going. It was strange that Naruto could have found him at all – it wasn't like the leader of his Family's enemy gang was inherently welcome in Oto – but Sasuke begrudgingly had to acknowledge that Naruto was a lot more astute than people gave him credit for. And to have found the leader of The Hawk, at his own apartment, no less…

It was an impressive feat for such a well-meaning moron.

As well as a tacit reminder that Naruto was much, much more dangerous than he seemed.

"Long time no see," Naruto said conversationally. "How've you been?"

"Cut the crap, asshole. What do you want."

"You know what I want, don't pretend you don't. I know Sakura came here to talk to you."

"Whatsamatter, Naruto?" Sasuke sneered, unable to resist the temptation of jeering his idiot former friend even under such tense circumstances. "Did you loosen her leash too much?"

Naruto's smile morphed instantly into a snarl. "Don't talk about her like that. You _know_ it's not like that."

"I know you as good as own her," Sasuke snapped back, extinguishing his cigarette just in case he needed to land a good punch on Naruto's face. "And I know what she wanted. An _alliance._ Did _you_ send her? Did you think seeing her again would weaken me?"

"You know as well as I do that I didn't send her _here._ I never would. She went off on her own, behind my back. And for the _record,_ asshole, she asked for your sake as much as ours."

Sasuke was on his feet, hands itching to wrap around Naruto's throat. He resented seeing his former best friend on his turf, resented the way it felt like the world was closing in around him, and the slow realization that the only way to save himself and his Family would be to align himself with the very organization he despised to his core.

But he was stubborn to a fault, and knew it would take a lot more than _Naruto_ to convince him that siding with Konoha was the right move.

"Don't give me that shit, she can't _stand _me," he said harshly. "And she's _right._ I'm your _enemy,_ you fucking moron, quit trying to look out for me. Quit trying to get the old band back together. Whatever shit you have with Akatsuki, you dug yourself into it. Leave me out."

"You're in it already, whether you like it or not," Naruto shot back, his helmet dropping to the sidewalk as he advanced on Sasuke. "And Sakura knew it. She came here hoping to _help_ you."

"As if she could," he scoffed. "As if _any_ of you could, you can barely help yourselves. I'm not going back there. Nothing you say could change my mind."

"Even if it meant saving Sakura?" Naruto said.

Sasuke _despised_ the way his heart skipped a beat at that challenge; even knowing that Sakura was supposed to be a part of his past, no longer his concern, the idea of something happening to her made his stomach ache. It was a familiar feeling, mixed panic and murderous intent.

It wasn't that long ago that he would have killed to protect Sakura, and the idea that he still would made him angry.

"Madara wants her," Naruto said sharply, now that he had Sasuke's attention. "_Alive,_ Sasuke. You know as well as I do that can't mean anything good."

"Why should I believe you?" Sasuke demanded, even as he ran through a thousand sinister possibilities as to why his infamous uncle would want a 19-year-old girl alive. None of them boded well, all of them made him sick. "You'd say anything to get me to come back."

"Enough of this shit, damn it!" Naruto exploded, seizing Sasuke by the collar of his jacket. "Fuck you, you fucking asshole! Quit acting like she doesn't mean anything to you!"

Sasuke had heard enough. He'd spent enough time over the last few days ruminating on Sakura Haruno; he did not need to listen to other people do it for him, and Naruto's suspicions on his continued feelings for her were the final straw.

He drew his arm back and slugged Naruto in the stomach with brutal force.

"Shut the _fuck up,_" he snarled, as Naruto was thrown off of him, doubled up and wheezing. "Quit acting like you know _shit_ about this!"

Naruto took a moment to catch his breath, then, furious, threw himself at Sasuke; both of them went flying and hit the sidewalk.

"If I gotta drag you back to fucking Konoha then I fucking will," Naruto promises between a volley of punches aimed at Sasuke's face. "We're all gonna die and they're gonna take Sakura if you don't come back, and I fucking know you never stopped loving her! Quit wasting my time, we don't have a lot of it, get your ass back home!"

Sasuke opened his mouth to respond with a vicious, unquestionable _never_ when the familiar click of a gun interrupted the brawl. He and Naruto both froze.

"Say the word, Sasuke," drawled Suigetsu, aiming his gun almost lazily at Naruto's exposed back. "I'll blow this kid to hell."

The Mexican Standoff had been tipped in Sasuke's favor with Suigetsu's timely arrival. Smirking, he shoved Naruto away from him and got to his feet, wiping away a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket. Lucky shot; Naruto's biggest advantage was his fountain of luck.

But one look at his cheerful former friend's desperate eyes told him that luck was running out.

"Hey…" Suigetsu said, cocking his head to the side as Naruto got up as well, "…I know you. You're from _Konoha!_ What _is_ it with that place anyway? First Sasuke's girlfriend shows up, now the full-on leader, who next?"

"Keep your voice down, you moron," snapped Sasuke; the break in the action couldn't have come at a better time. A police cruiser made its way slowly down their street; had they been caught fighting, it would have been a huge hassle to get out of trouble. Two gangleaders throwing 'bows outside an apartment building wasn't Oto's standard of peaceful living.

"How 'bout it, man?" Suigetsu pressed him, his gun still pointed in threat at Naruto's head. "Do I bust him?"

For a long moment, Sasuke considered his options. He would make eternal enemies out of the Outer Ring if he ordered Naruto killed, but the rate things were going for them, they wouldn't be around much longer anyway.

He violently suppressed the raw panic in his stomach at the very thought.

"No," he murmured, meeting Naruto's probing gaze levelly. "Get inside. Both of you. It's too active out here."

He couldn't think straight. So much was happening and all at the same time. He needed a minute to organize his thoughts, but whenever he tried to, some gigantic catastrophe unfolded before him, requiring his immediate attention.

Tonight, that happened to be Naruto.

Nonetheless, flanked by his former ally and his current lieutenant, Sasuke made his way back into the building, shoving them both inside his apartment and locking the door behind them. Naruto was right – this had gone too far – and a decision had to be made, tonight, one way or the other.

With an infuriating inevitability, he realized that his decision was bound to hinge on Sakura.

"All right man you owe us the truth," Suigetsu snapped, violet eyes angry and impatient. "You been jerkin' us around all this time, you're keepin' secrets, holdin' out on us…enough's enough. What the hell is a Ringer doin' here? What did that Sakura girl want? What the hell's goin' on?"

Increasingly angry, Sasuke took the opportunity to round on Naruto. He drew his own gun, and pointed it directly between his old friend's eyes, his intent deadly serious. Naruto had his weapon out as well, aimed at Sasuke, a hairline cut from Sasuke's fist leaking a fair amount of blood.

"I want the truth," Sasuke said coldly. "From you. Then I'll decide if I'm gonna save your pathetic Family, or let them die like they deserve."

Naruto didn't flinch, didn't hesitate. "You heard it already from Sakura."

"I can't trust her," Sasuke snapped, a deep-seeded part of him resenting the truth of that statement, but it was unavoidable. "She's got too much reason to want to take me down. I want to hear it from you. _What's going on in Konoha?_"

Naruto sighed, then lowered his gun, even slid it back into his jacket before taking an uninvited seat on Sasuke's beat-up couch. He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair and said, "All right, man. You've heard it already but if you need it from me, here it is:

"Your uncle's put the word out on all of us. The entire Outer Ring. They invaded a few weeks ago and there were fights here and there…it turned serious, though, when they plugged Neji. We heard it through the grapevine that they're coming for you next."

It was exactly what Sakura had told him, and the thing about Naruto was he couldn't lie for shit. Even after the collapse of their fraternal bond, Naruto remained as honest and forthcoming with Sasuke as he always had. In a bitter, ironic twist of fate, Naruto Uzumaki was the only person alive who Sasuke could trust.

Two years ago, he would gladly have placed his life in the hands of any of the other Ringers. Sakura learned all of his secrets and he'd trusted her with them implicitly. But now that he'd wronged them – in their ignorant eyes, anyway – by defecting, baiting him into this gang war could be an elaborate scheme at revenge.

Even Sakura – even she couldn't be trusted. Not at face value. She had more reason than any of them combined to want to bring him down.

But hearing it from Naruto – Naruto, who'd never once lied to him – he couldn't deny it any longer.

Madara was coming. For all of them. It was only a question of when.

"Holy shit," Suigetsu cussed, leaning back against the wall and rubbing his arm, which was still wounded from the gunfight a few days ago. "That explains it then. Madara. _Madara._ This changes everything."

"How does Sakura figure into this," Sasuke asked monotonously, making a determined effort to sound as clinical and detached as possible, but there was a knowing twinkle in Naruto's eye that told him he wasn't fooling anyone.

As always, Sakura Haruno would be the deciding factor.

"We don't know yet," Naruto replied. "She was attacked the other night with Shikamaru. Before they killed the guys who were after 'em, they found out that they wanted her alive. We don't know what for."

_Whatever it is, it can't be good,_ Sasuke thought gravely, familiar protective instincts awakening at the very mention that Sakura could be in danger. _They had no compunctions taking out Shikamaru, the Outer Ring's chief strategist…but they wanted Sakura alive…_

_What game is that, Madara?_

He couldn't help but feel like Sakura's mysterious role in this was what it had been so often in the past:

A weapon against him.

His relationship with her was well-known, and the examples he'd made of the people who'd tried to hurt her over the years left no doubt that this was a woman who could be used against him.

If that was Madara's game, using her to get to Sasuke…

"So just to get this straight," Suigetsu said, trying to make sense of what he was hearing, "your uncle wants both our gangs wiped out. He's killing everyone…except your ex-girlfriend. What the hell for?"

Sasuke ignored him. So did Naruto. They stared each other down hard before Sasuke asked softly, "Do you swear – on _Itachi's life_ – that this is for real?"

Naruto nodded. "C'mon man. This ain't about what's truth or not. You knew it yourself from the start what was goin' on. You know I know what happened. I know why you hate Konoha so much. I know. But Sakura never had anything to do with that, and you and I both know you're not gonna let her suffer to settle a score."

Sasuke resented that even after all this time…

He was still so fucking predictable.

* * *

Konoha was a lot darker nowadays than he remembered it.

Being back here was like being slid down a banister of razorblades into a vat of rubbing alcohol. It was like no time had passed at all, the way he remapped the entire city in his head. He knew exactly where to find everything, remembered it like he'd walked down the streets the day before.

Two years, it had been, since he'd set foot here.

The orange Alfa Romeo 4C was predictably ostentatious, but it was a smooth ride. A good car. Naruto was nowhere near the driver he was, but he looked perfectly at ease, driving himself, the leader of an enemy gang, and the enemy leader's lieutenant deep into the heart of the city.

They were headed to the Warehouse.

"You Ringers are too trusting," Suigetsu snorted from the backseat. "Leading us right to y'all homefront. Tch. It's a wonder you haven't been killed way before this."

Naruto, rather than take offense, merely laughed.

"Sasuke's known where we live ever since he went to Konoha," he scoffed. "If he'd wanted to take us out, he'd know exactly where to find us."

"I haven't ruled it out yet," Sasuke murmured darkly.

Naruto just laughed again and turned down Prospect Street. They were getting closer.

Sasuke knew that he was in for, at best, a very uncomfortable confrontation; at worst, a bloodbath. No one besides Naruto knew the exact reasons for his defection, which meant that they only saw him as a traitor. And gangbangers only knew one way to deal with traitors.

He was glad he was packing.

"Been awhile since I been back here," Suigetsu remarked offhand. "Looks different."

"You have your uncle to thank for that," Naruto mumbled to Sasuke, as they drove past Ayame's All-Nighter; police tape was wrapped around the perimeter and the windows were dark. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

He shouldn't care what happened to Konoha, not after Itachi. He shouldn't care if things looked darker, scarier, than how he remembered them to be. He shouldn't care.

But he _did,_ damn it.

White-hot anger bubbled in his veins at the realization. It was stupid as hell coming here. He should have stayed away.

"They're gonna meet us there," Naruto said, pulling down the alley that led to their hidden car garage.

"Who," Sasuke ground out angrily, as if he didn't already know. Naruto was frustratingly predictable, and would choose his inner circle.

He wasn't looking forward to this.

"You already know who, man," Naruto chuckled. "Shikamaru. Kiba. Ino. And yeah. _Sakura._ So if you don't want her to run you over, I suggest you be _real nice._"

Naruto pulled into his parking space at the end of a huge underground lot; Sasuke didn't recognize most of the cars housed inside. Suigetsu was impressed, judging by his low whistle as they all got out of the Alfa Romeo.

"_No wonder_ Madara wants this place so bad!" he remarked.

They took the elevator, Sasuke sorely regretting every decision he'd made that evening, and reached the gym level. It smelled just like it used to: sweaty and sickeningly floral, like their old cheap air fresheners. Instantly, he recalled a thousand days spent in this massive gym, wrestling with Naruto, boxing with Kakashi, Krav Maga with Sakura.

_Get it together,_ he thought, gritting his teeth. _You're here for a reason. Not to rehash the past._

"I'm home!" Naruto called out happily as the three of them set foot inside the gym. Sasuke kept his hands deep in his pockets, one finger threaded through the trigger of his gun, in case he would need to blow one of his old friends half to hell.

_Here goes,_ he thought, steeling his features into a mask of immaculate apathy.

She drew his eye instantly, always did, even at the back of the group huddled together by the boxing ring. Her green eyes, electric and angry, bore into his from behind Shikamaru and Ino, who both watched him carefully, almost curiously; Kiba grunted his disapproval.

He didn't look away from her.

"Well, we got a lot to talk about," Naruto said needlessly, as the group met in the middle.

She looked as beautiful and untouchable as ever, which deeply frustrated him; she would be so easy to ignore if she weren't so _attractive._ Her signature cat-eye makeup, skin-tight leather, high-heeled boots, spiky pink hair…

And angrier than he had ever seen her.

His presence, as far as she was concerned, was entirely unwelcome.

Eyes narrowed, ignoring her comrades, she stepped forward and in a movement so fast, he almost didn't catch it, she'd drawn her gun and had it pointed at his forehead. He felt the cold metal on his skin, and fought to keep his anger in check.

"Give me one good reason," she purred softly, lips curling into a sneer as everyone around her jumped, "why I shouldn't do it."

He never thought he'd see the day when _Sakura_ threatened him.

But nothing was normal anymore.

"Because you need me," he replied, smirking. "And here I am."

* * *

**note..** yeah i know the transition chapter nobody likes, but it's necessary for what happens next, pinky swear. more action and more sasusaku next chapter. i can't resist.

um, if you're not into drama and violence and what have you, that's perfectly fine, but please don't read and review a story that's clearly labeled as such. you didn't find this jawn in the humor filter for a reason; it's not supposed to be funny. if you want to laugh, go read a humor story. i'm not going to change the tone to appease anybody. come on.

anyway hope you enjoyed. happy sasusaku month!

xoxo daisy :)


	8. Trust

She lowered her gun but refused to put it away. Piping hot anger had her almost salivating to pull the trigger.

He stood in front of her like he owned the place, like he'd never left, smirking and as arrogant and self-assured as he'd always been. There was something gut-wrenching about seeing him back in the gym, all broad shoulders and as comfortable among them as ever.

After two years, Sasuke was back in Konoha.

And she was _angry._

"You'd better explain yourself, Naruto," she hissed, faintly aware of Shikamaru's hand on her shoulder. A calming, repressive gesture that made her want to smack him.

_I have a RIGHT to be angry!_ she thought furiously. _I have a RIGHT to react this way, why does EVERYONE treat me like I'm a bomb about to explode?!_

"You didn't tell me _this_ would happen!" the man standing beside Sasuke hissed, panicking.

Sakura turned her catlike eyes on him and cocked her head. "You're Suigetsu."

"Nice to meet you, babe, now could you put that gun away? You're makin' me nervous."

She recognized him as Sasuke's lieutenant, _and_ as the (ex?) boyfriend Karin was so determined to protect. There was a bandage wrapped around his upper arm that confirmed Karin's story; he'd been attacked, most likely by Madara's men.

"Now everybody let's just calm down," said Naruto quellingly, but as the others hadn't pulled out their weapons, she knew the statement to be directed to her. Indeed when she tore her gaze away from Sasuke's smirking face, she saw Naruto staring at her with his palms raised, half-conciliatory, half-suppressive. "We have a lot to talk about, okay, Sakura?"

Wondering how much more bullshit she would have to take, she finally shoved her gun back into her jacket and folded her arms tightly over her chest.

"All right," Naruto sighed, running a hand through his spiky blonde hair. "Now look, here's what's up. We know Madara's after all of us."

Sakura said nothing; she could feel Sasuke's eyes on her and wanted nothing more than to poke them out. How _dare_ he come back here. How _dare_ he look at her with those eyes, as if he had any right?

_You didn't come back when I asked you to,_ she thought savagely. _But when NARUTO asks it, here you are with bells on. Bastard. Fucking asshole._

"Sasuke and Suigetsu are here for recon," Naruto explained. "They'll be going back and forth to Oto…it'll take 'em awhile to convince everyone else in their dumb inferior gang that we're all allies now."

"Dumbass," Sasuke muttered; Sakura _despised_ the familiarity. As though nothing had changed. As though Sasuke and Naruto were still best friends, still joking around and belittling each other…how could the others just watch this debauchery happen without experiencing the same disgust that she was? How was she the only one to see this for what it was?

_Revolting._

"This is Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, and Sakura," Naruto said, pointing to each of them in turn for Suigetsu's sake. Like he was making introductions between future friends at a fucking college party. Sakura wanted to vomit, and wondered how many years Naruto would tack onto her debt if she just shot Suigetsu where he stood. "And for now, we're the only ones who know about you guys being here."

Shikamaru squeezed her shoulder and stepped forward, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. He looked as carefree and relaxed as ever, which only added to her frustration. Would it kill any of them to show a little consternation?

"Here's what we know," he said flatly to the two infiltrators. "Madara put the word out on the Outer Ring, and his men, before we killed them, revealed that once we're taken care of, The Hawk is next on his list. Makes sense, because Konoha and Oto have huge populations and they're port cities, too; high quality meat for any top-quality gangster. Seems like his men have already started in on Oto."

"Your injury," said Sakura suddenly, referring to Suigetsu, and fully content to ignore Sasuke's presence until he got the hell out of there. "Who gave it to you?"

"We're thinkin' Madara," Suigetsu replied. "The M.O. matches, but the guy got away before we could ID him."

"Can we be sure it's the same, though?" Ino asked from beside Sakura. "Can we be sure it was a Madara hit, and not just a copycat?"

"It's not like they don't have plenty of their own enemies, out in Oto," Kiba chimed in dryly.

"There's a way to prove it," Sakura went on. "Did you save the bullet from your arm after it was pulled?"

"Yeah, we always do."

"Bring it here as soon as you can. Shikamaru and I grabbed a gun from one of Madara's men before the cops cleaned the scene, still has bullets in it. We can use ballistics to see if the bullet from your arm came from the same kind of gun as the guys from the diner hit."

Suigetsu looked impressed, grinning with sharp teeth. "Smart cookie. I like her, Sasuke."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well it's plain to see that you boys will only ever offer a helping hand if you're sure you're next on the chopping block," she said icily, pointedly avoiding Sasuke's angry glare.

"To continue," Shikamaru said pointedly, "Akatsuki shows every sign of wanting all of us dead. They took out Neji, one of our higher-ups, last week, not to mention a number of other lower-ranking members, but they appear to be gunning for the head honchos. With one notable exception."

At that, everyone turned their eyes on Sakura.

"We have verbal confirmation from Akatsuki that they want Sakura alive," Shikamaru finished. "As Naruto's lieutenant, they should be gunning for her like the rest of us; that they have other plans for her changes everything."

"Why would they want you alive?" Suigetsu asked with a frown. "No offense, babe, but if I'm tryna take out a rival gang, I'm not about to let their number two walk away from the scene.."

Sakura hated Suigetsu on principle, but at least he had the decency to discuss her to her face; the others talked about her as if she wasn't even there.

"It's irrelevant for now," she said decisively. "What I want to know is what you two plan to do in our city, and how long you plan to do it."

"They'll be back and forth, in and out of Konoha, while we try to figure out Madara's next move," Naruto explained quickly.

"And who in The Hawk know you're here?" she demanded, ignoring Naruto as she turned her icy gaze on Sasuke.

"No one," he replied smoothly.

"Good," she said sharply. "Because the citizens of Konoha are our turf and under her protection; if I find out you used the information you'll learn from us against us, then…"

"Enough," Sasuke said sharply, his rumbling voice cracking like a whip in the empty gym.

"Here's what I'm _not_ gonna deal with," he went on, taking a step towards Sakura, his dark eyes narrowed, his lips curled into a scowl. "Your paranoid fucking attitude. If I wanted to hurt this city or anybody inside, I have all the information I need to make it happen. I grew up here, I know how you all work and operate. If I wanted Konoha burned, I would have burned it."

He had a point, but like hell would Sakura admit it.

"I'm here because you're desperate," Sasuke snapped, before she could argue any further. "I don't like it anymore than you do maybe I'm desperate too."

She'd heard quite enough.

"I'm out of here," she said coldly, making sure to shoulder past Sasuke on her way out. "Figures you'd only come back if you had no other choice!"

Nobody stopped her.

* * *

"Been awhile since you showed up here, Sakura."

It wasn't, perhaps, the likeliest place to find a well-known gangster, the police commissioner's office. But Sakura had formed a bizarre friendship with Commissioner Tsunade over the years, one that benefited both parties.

Tsunade knew that the Outer Ring had a hand in a decent amount of criminal activity. She also knew that they did more good than harm in the city and never hurt civilians; oftentimes, she would look the other way if one of their members was brought in to the police station for questioning. In return, Sakura fed her quite a bit of information in regards to other gang activity that led to a huge amount of criminal arrests.

Sakura figured that if she had to be a criminal, at least she could do a little bit of good in the world.

"I've been busy," Sakura replied quietly, taking a seat opposite her old friend's desk. "How've you been?"

"Busy." Tsunade, a no-nonsense alcoholic with extravagant beauty to back up her shrewd temperament, leaned back in her moth-eaten desk chair as she surveyed the younger woman with raised eyebrows. "A lot busier than usual. You know anything about that?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, actually," Sakura replied with a smile. "Maybe it hasn't reached civilian ears or caught the attention of the fuzz yet, but Akatsuki's put the word out on us."

Tsunade's eyebrows traveled even higher up her forehead, followed by a hefty sigh. She pinched the bridge of her nose and murmured, "Well that's all I need. Neji's death, then?"

"Yeah. It was them."

"Jesus."

"Do you have any files on Madara? Or any of his higher-ups? I could really use a look at them."

"Officially, no. He's kept his nose clean in this area. To get any information on him at all, I'd have to reach out to powerful friends in other jurisdictions." Tsunade smirked. "So keep your phone on and I'll let you know."

"Thank you, Tsunade. Seriously. Any little bit helps. We're all…running on borrowed time here."

"I'll be honest, Sakura. Konoha is a safer place with the Ringers than without them. Probably not what a police commissioner should be condoning – gang activity – but I know how things are for you guys. What I _can_ tell you about Madara is that he never keeps the same alliances for long."

Sakura frowned. "How do you mean?"

"He doesn't trust people. He milks them for all they're worth, then cuts them loose when they've lost their utility. It makes him difficult to track, being that he never stays in one place for too long, and he's constantly disposing of and replacing his inner circle, so to speak."

"He's got so many fucking followers, though," Sakura remarked, deep in thought; it was refreshing, to be spoken to as an equal for once by an intelligent human being. Tsunade didn't pull punches with her, which she relished. "If he doesn't have any loyalty to them, why do they have loyalty to him?"

"Oh don't be naïve. You're smarter than that. What's the one thing that keeps strangers thick as thieves?"

The answer dawned on Sakura, but it seemed to raise a great deal more questions.

"Money," she said slowly, and Tsunade nodded with a humorless smirk.

"Money," she confirmed.

"But…how is he financing all of this? Maybe if we can cut off his resources, we can stop him. Or at least slow him down."

"Judging from the scope and scale of his crimes, he must have one hell of a financial backer," Tsunade said coolly. "I know he's got a fair fortune from the Uchiha family, but you'd be better off speaking to your old friend Sasuke about that. He'd know better than I would where all that cash went."

Sakura stiffened, then figured that was about as good a segue as she was going to get. Resenting that this task fell to her, she murmured, "There's something else, Tsunade."

The commissioner nodded for her to continue, stormy amber eyes expectant.

"Sasuke is…this can't go further than us. It's still too fresh. But he's back here. _Temporarily._ Along with his lieutenant from Oto."

"Sakura their presence here can't be tolerated. I look the other way for you Ringers, but he's…"

"He's with us for now," Sakura said firmly.

"For _now?_"

"That's the best I can give you. Madara's men spilled that The Hawk is next on Akatsuki's list, and we're both outgunned, unless we join up together. Sasuke and his lieutenant are here to gather intel on the city and communicate it to their gang. They'll be shuttling back and forth…taking the South Exits. I'd appreciate it if you pulled the police cruisers that way. We'll take over surveillance on that sector but we can't risk the cops getting involved."

Tsunade drummed perfectly painted fingernails on her cedar desk, her expression distinctly unhappy.

"I don't like this one bit, Sakura. But I trust you implicitly, _unfortunately._ And while I think your talents would be put to better use in my office…all right. I'll pull my cruisers for the next three nights but I want your best drivers in that area. Any trouble, any funny business, Uchiha pulls any shit, I'm holding _you_ responsible. Understand?"

"Understood. I'll keep in touch. The most I can give you is that Akatsuki's invading, but we're trying to handle it ourselves."

"Thanks for the heads-up, babe."

"You, too."

* * *

Having Tsunade as a contact was a huge asset. Sakura admired Tsunade as much as she admired anyone, and the assistance the commissioner often gave the Outer Ring had gotten them out of quite a few jams. It benefited them both to have a relationship like they did.

She hurried down the steps of the police station, having successfully evaded Izumo and Kotetsu for the third time that week, and decided to make her way back to her place. It had been a long, hard, trying day, and she figured a good night's sleep was all she could do to calm her nerves and quell her temper.

Hoping to avoid the others for the rest of the evening, she made it to the Tower and headed up to her apartment.

She was only half surprised to find Sasuke waiting for her in the living room when she opened the door. Of course he still remembered where she kept her key; she cursed herself for not thinking to take it with her.

Nothing pissed her off quite like seeing him sitting on her windowsill, smoking a cigarette, shoulders relaxed like he had _any right_ to be there.

"You're aware that I have the right to blow your _fucking_ head off for breaking and entering," Sakura said smoothly, deciding not to throw a fit and dignify his unwanted presence with a reaction. She peeled off her jacket and let it fall on the back of the sofa.

"I'm aware that Konoha's police department doesn't always follow the letter of the law," Sasuke replied, exhaling a ring of smoke and leaving out his cigarette still burning on the sill. "Which might explain why you were there, talking to the commissioner."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "I guess it's not just Naruto keeping tabs on me lately," she hissed.

"What the hell were you talking to her for?" Sasuke demanded, standing up off the sill and advancing on her.

It infuriated her to acknowledge this, but Sasuke looked _amazing._ The years had been unbelievably good to him; he was even taller than she remembered, shoulders broader, jawline sculpted, eyes dark and hair tousled. She knew his leather jacket and dark jeans concealed cut abdominals and rock-hard biceps; but like hell would she let his good looks distract her from her piping hot anger.

"For your _information,_" Sakura hissed, "I was telling her to back off you and Suigetsu while you're here. If any of the cops found out you were here, they wouldn't have thought twice before they shot you both."

Sasuke looked surprised, before his trademark intensity returned to his expression. Stepping forward until there was only one foot separating them, he murmured, "Why would you do that."

"We need you here," Sakura replied, seeing no reason to deny it when she'd already begged him back herself. "I don't have to be happy about it and I'm not. I don't fuckin' trust you. I think the second you find out The Hawk is in the clear, you'll leave all of us to die in the dirt. But I know right now you need us, and we need you. I'll cover your ass for as long as you've got our back."

Sasuke relaxed a bit. For a moment they just regarded each other with glares of varying degrees of suspicion, before she felt his gaze drop from her face to her body. A shiver ripped through her at the familiar gesture, but she didn't let it show on her face.

"What?" she demanded.

"I see you didn't stop here," he replied, running two fingers over the ringlet tattooed around her bicep. Goosebumps erupted on her arm at the ghostly touch, a pitiful echo of the way he used to wrap his hands around her, but enough to draw the breath from her lungs.

Then, she realized what he was talking about. The full sleeve of tattoos she'd gotten on her arm besides the ring. Flowers, mostly; pretty things to counteract the criminal reality of the black ring on her bicep.

"You miss a lot in two years," she said, hoping her voice was as cold as she meant for it to be. "Now if that's all, you can get the hell out of here."

Sasuke didn't move towards the door. Instead, he allowed his fingers to drift from her arm, up her shoulder, to her collarbone. She shivered in the tank top she was wearing, unable to suppress the thrill of attraction that threatened to erupt inside her. All this time, and he could still bring her down.

His fingers found the sleek silver chain around her neck and she stiffened as he pulled the pendant hidden in her small cleavage out to see.

The same circle he wore around his neck.

"Now let's get one thing straight, Sakura," he murmured, close to her ear; he still said her name the same way. A deep, electric rumble that made her knees check. His hand tightened around the pendant, pulling her in even closer. She could smell his faint cologne and the smell of spice and tobacco on his skin. He was warm and the proximity made her head spin; if either one of them moved their head just slightly to the right, their lips would brush.

"You don't trust me," he went on, holding her captive less by his grip around her necklace, and more by his grip around her heart. "And I don't _care._ I don't much trust you either."

"Bastard," Sakura hissed.

"…but there was a time when we did trust each other."

Sakura felt her breath catch in her throat. How dare he bring that up. How _could_ he. Suddenly, she felt tears gather in her eyes. Crying in front of Sasuke – something she vowed never to do – was becoming a frightening, horrifying possibility. He needed to get out of her apartment. He needed to leave her alone. Alone with her thoughts and desperation and reawakened feelings.

"It's the only chance any of us have," Sasuke went on, still so, so _close, _his nose almost buried in her hair. She remembered the way they used to sleep, Sasuke pinning her body against his so he could breathe in the scent of her hair, something he used to love doing. It made her want to vomit with longing. "So let go of your shit with me for as long as I'm here. Hate me when this is over."

It was a request. As close to pleading as Sasuke ever got.

She kept her eyes on his strong hand, holding her necklace so tightly, unable to meet his gaze without breaking down completely.

"…I bought you three days for now," she revealed quietly. "Gather what information you need. Then leave out the South Tunnel. The commissioner pulled her cruisers in that area for the time being; I dispatched a few of our patrols to make sure there's no trouble."

It was a show of trust that Sakura didn't necessarily feel in her heart, but Sasuke was right; if she had had any other choice, things would be different, but an alliance with Oto – with Sasuke – was Konoha's last hope. She would have to put aside her personal feelings – her anger, her frustration, her suspicion, her _hurt_ – and make the best out of this situation.

There was no alternative. Sasuke knew that.

"Aa," he murmured with a slight nod, one that sent spiky black hair tickling across her bare shoulders. Then, because it was fair to offer information after it was freely given, he added, "Before you left the meeting I told the others that nobody in Oto knows what we're doing here. It'll take us awhile to convince them to work with all of you instead of against you; it'll be the same for the Ringers to adjust to working with The Hawk."

"And the other gangbangers in Oto?" Sakura pressed, attempting to focus on the conversation and not the way Sasuke was making her body sing with his heated proximity. "The ones not riding under you?"

"Leave them to me."

Sakura nodded and turned further away from him, bowing her head. It felt like defeat to her, and she hated surrender. Standing in her apartment, Sasuke's hand practically around her throat, and still making her as breathless and dizzy as he always did…by letting go of her anger, even temporarily, was she conceding an important victory to someone who didn't deserve it?

Sasuke inhaled sharply and let the necklace fall. She caught a glimpse of the same silver chain around his neck, mostly concealed by his T-shirt, and felt her throat burn. He had to leave.

"I'm tired," she said quietly. "Just…we can talk more tomorrow. Kakashi'll be back from Suna. Hopefully with good news."

Sasuke nodded curtly and took a step back, restoring some distance and therefore some clarity to Sakura's overwrought mind. Without the threat (hope) of being kissed by her special boy, she could think straight; having him here, in any capacity, was bad news. She needed him gone, or he was going to tear her down again.

She'd trained for this. Steeled her heart, laid barriers of ice and stone around it. This was a necessity. He'd be back in Oto soon. Once this was all over…

"There's more to discuss," he said.

"Tomorrow." Her voice was firm but resigned; he was right. There was much more to talk about, but now was not the time.

"Aa," Sasuke murmured, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. Without another word, without a backwards glance, he strode across the living room and stepped outside the door. It shut quietly behind them.

Sakura kicked off her boots and, almost robotically, crossed the room to the window she'd come in to find him smoking at. The cigarette he'd abandoned was nearly all the way burned out. It had maybe two or three good drags left in it.

She lifted it to her lips and inhaled. It tasted amazing. Sasuke never bought cigarettes from a store; he preferred to roll his own. He'd taught her, once, using an ancient little crank his father had left to him. A special blend of tobacco they used to sometimes mix with weed left over from massive drug deliveries, right before making passionate love and sweet future promises to each other.

It tasted like she knew he would: of missed opportunities and cloudy memories. As she finished the cigarette, only distantly aware of the tears streaming like rivers down her face, she released a shuddering sigh. Stubbed it out on the sill, watched the dim fire extinguish under her firm hand.

She'd taken her power back from him. Like hell would she return it.

* * *

**note..** i love writing this story. but what you all need to be doing right now is reading dead end street by the scarlett ribbon. because if you like gangfics then you need to read hers because it's fucking beautiful. puts this shit right to shame. i know i said more action but it got a bit long so i'll save it for next time ;)

and this obnoxiously early update is because les says she's writing a gangfic too and i need it.

xoxoxoxo leavemesomelovekeepthecriticismtoyourselfidontwant itthankyouverymuchloveyou daisy :)


	9. Disarm

No sooner had Sasuke shut Sakura's door behind him than he realized he wasn't alone in the hallway. Annoyed, he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned his head to the left, towards the shadows by the stairwell.

"It's rude to listen in on other people's conversations," he quipped.

A quick rustling, and then Naruto appeared before him, grinning as usual, but it didn't meet his eyes.

"No offense, man, but you and Sakura don't exactly have the best track record. I was just listening for gunshots."

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, not buying it. Naruto's smile dissolved into a frown as he jerked his head in the direction of the stairs.

"Not here," he mumbled. "Let's go. There's something I want you to see."

Sasuke was wary, but he followed Naruto down the stairs all the same. He was a bit taken aback to see the differences in his former best friend; two years ago, Naruto had been little more than a prankster who'd retained this childish innocence despite his treacherous line of work. He'd been quick to smile at everyone and painfully optimistic.

Now, though, he looked older. Tired. Run down. His bright blue eyes were dimmer and his skin, usually perennially tan, was pale and almost clammy. Sasuke studied him from behind and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

_Things must really be bad here,_ he thought.

Not that this was news to Sasuke, of course, but never before had he seen Naruto looking so _stressed._ They'd seen some truly horrible things back when they were both Ringers, but despite each tragedy, Naruto had come out on top with that bone-deep, impenetrable optimism still in tact.

"Where are we going?" he asked quietly, once they'd left the Tower and were heading down the street. He didn't like walking around Konoha in the middle of the night. He felt exposed and curiously vulnerable; being back in a place you'd once betrayed had that effect on you. Despite the protection offered by Naruto's presence, he was still expecting a sniper on a rooftop to take aim at the back of his head.

"Someplace you need to see," Naruto returned without looking behind him, so Sasuke drew up to his level instead of following.

It was much, much darker in Konoha than he remembered, he realized, as he and Naruto made their way swiftly through the city. They passed Ayame's All-Nighter, a diner they all used to frequent multiple times a week, windows boarded up and shielded by two lines of police tape. Trained eyes made out the bulletholes in the brickwork. Police sirens, though not uncommon in Konoha before his departure, played an almost endless concerto in the distance and he wondered how many of them were cleaning up Madara's messes. It was chilly and unseasonably foggy, no longer the busy, bustling city Sasuke had once loved.

Two years and Konoha was becoming a ghost town.

Naruto led him about a mile away from the Tower before making his way purposefully into the South Konoha Resting Ground.

"The _cemetery?_" Sasuke demanded, anger flaring up inside him, along with a little bit of panic. _Itachi…_ "What the hell are we doing _here?_"

"It's not about Itachi," Naruto said, annoyingly perceptive as always. "I know it fuckin kills you to admit it but not everything in life revolves around you and your brother. C'mon. Let's go."

Unsure if he should kick Naruto's ass for that comment or not, Sasuke followed warily as Naruto weaved his way expertly through the maze of tombstones and mausoleums, even in the deep darkness. He'd clearly been coming here for a very long time, to know his way around so well.

Naruto stopped at the crest of a small hill, where two lone gravestones sat side by side overlooking the rest of the cemetery. Sasuke frowned before taking in the names enscribed on the stones.

"You need to see the reality of what we're dealing with," Naruto said firmly,none of the childish naivete on his face that Sasuke had come to associate with him. He looked harder, older, shockingly mature. "And I know you act like you don't care…but Neji was your friend. He was your brother same as all of us. And now he's dead."

The gravestone on the left bearing Neji's name was very recent, unblemished by the influence of the elements like the others were. The one beside it, Hinata's, was slightly older, her name and young age still frightfully legible against the pearly white stone. It was impossible to forget what had happened that terrible day, and Sasuke realized belatedly that maybe this was the real root of Naruto's hardened maturity.

"And Hinata…" Naruto trailed off, looking skyward as if hoping to catch a glimpse of her face on the passing moonlit clouds. "I had to watch her die, Sasuke. I…I was holding her when it happened. I was the last thing she saw. I couldn't do anything to save her."

"Hn." _I know. I remember. I'll never forget._

"I know that being here with Sakura is hard for you," he went on, running a hand through his spiky blonde hair. "Both of you. But if we can't work together, if we can't get this done…" He nodded towards Hinata's tombstone, then looked around at Sasuke, eyes hard, "…you're gonna know what it felt like that day to lose everything."

Sasuke stiffened. For the millionth time, he was forced to imagine the possibility of losing Sakura. Granted, he'd left her himself two years ago, but it was with the understanding that she would be alive, looked after, taken care of. He wouldn't have been able to tolerate anything less than that. The knowledge that she was okay, somewhere out there in the world where he couldn't reach her, had been enough to get him through the darkest, hardest, loneliest Oto nights. He didn't know what would become of him, if he lost that security.

"I'm here," Sasuke said curtly. "What more do you want from me?"

Naruto was quiet for a moment, then he sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I won't let you hurt her anymore than you already have," he said flatly. "I know your reasons for leaving, but she doesn't. And she deserves to. You should've told her two years ago, instead of holding her responsible with the rest of us. I was listening outside her door tonight because I know what kind of power you have over her."

_Worrying about Sakura,_ Sasuke thought, uncomfortable and annoyed by this line of questioning. _Worrying about the power I have over her._

_Does anybody give a shit about the power she has over me?_

"She was destroyed after you left," Naruto plowed on, while Sasuke pointedly looked away. "Picked herself up though and survived and sometimes she smiles. She's stronger than any of us have a right to be and she's better than this life. You said so yourself."

"Get to the point, asshole."

"The _point_ is that I don't care what happens with Madara. I don't care if we need you and you need us. If you hurt her again – if you hurt her one more second of your life – I'll fuckin' kill you myself."

There was grim, grave, terrible truth in Naruto's voice. He faced Sasuke squarely, perhaps anticipating a fight.

He wasn't going to get one.

Sasuke let his shoulders relax and murmured, "I didn't come here to hurt her."

He couldn't make any promises; it was a war, after all, and this wouldn't be the first time he'd had to do something he didn't like. Even if they survived, he couldn't guarantee that Sakura would come out of this physically and emotionally unscathed.

Such a luxury didn't exist in their world.

But it was true. He'd never meant to hurt Sakura, and that wasn't his reason for coming back.

Naruto studied his face for a minute before breaking into a smile.

"Good," he said, satisfied. "Now that that's out of the way…"

"I'm going to bed," Sasuke interjected, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. He wanted out of this cemetery. Too many friends rested here, and he knew for a fact, in a shallow, poorly-marked grave at the north end, so did his brother. He wasn't ready to face him yet.

Today had been draining. He was exhausted.

"…okay. Yeah, dude. Suigetsu's staying at my place. We can…we can head back there now. And figure shit out tomorrow."

* * *

The next morning, Sakura joined the boys at Naruto's apartment looking a bit tired. Normally she dressed like the sultry, hardened gangster she was – in thin, scrappy leather with her best assets on prominent display – but today, she looked completely different. She was wearing skinny jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled up into a ponytail off her neck, her heavily-tattooed arm concealed under her clothes.

If anything, Sasuke realized, something churning in his stomach as he glanced her over, she looked like a normal girl. A college student, maybe.

She stepped inside, ignoring the way he looked at her with raised eyebrows, and said, "C'mon, let's go."

Sasuke did not like being ordered around anywhere, something he very strongly wished to remind his old friends, but given the shaky armistice he'd reached last night with Sakura, he figured he would let this one slide.

"Where?" he demanded.

"Suna," she said flatly.

"_Suna?_"

"Hurry up," she snapped, impatient. "Didn't Naruto tell you?"

Sasuke rounded on Naruto, sprawled out on his sofa; he grinned sheepishly. "Oh, yeah, that's right. Meant to tell you last night, but you were all worked up and shit. You and Sakura have to go to Suna to convince Gaara to help us."

"Wasn't that what _Kakashi_ was supposed to do?" Sasuke demanded, pissed off at Naruto's convenient amnesia.

"He tried," Sakura sighed, shaking her bangs out of her eyes. "So did Shikamaru. We explained that we were working on you guys to join up, too, but Gaara won't buy it unless he sees it in action."

"Sees what?" Suigetsu asked, emerging from the bathroom with a towel around his neck, extremely comfortable in the home of his once-sworn enemy. "What's he gotta see before he helps us?"

Sakura hesitated. "Hawk and Outer Ring working together," she said after a pause. "Allies. If anything's gonna bring him around, it'll be seeing us together."

Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets, thinking deeply. That did make sense; Gaara, a painfully pragmatic gang leader if there ever was one, was not the type to stick his neck out for anybody unless success was guaranteed. At the moment, Akatsuki hadn't made any moves against the Sand Sibling gang in Suna, which explained Gaara's lack of action.

"Gaara owes us," Sakura said stiffly, sounding pissed as she folded her arms across her chest. "He conveniently forgets that. The only way he'll help us out is if he's sure we'll win."

Sasuke understood why she was angry. Sakura had no respect for anyone who reneged on an agreement, whether that be a vow to repay a debt, or…

Or a broken promise. He refused to let his discomfort show on his face, even as Sakura's slightly-bitter gaze came to rest on him, a delicate reminder that he could now count himself among the people who'd made her a promise, then broken it.

"But it's okay!" Naruto said hastily, apparently sensing tension stirring in his living room. "See, once he sees Sasuke and Sakura back together and partners again, he's bound to come around!"

"How are you not angrier about this?" Sakura demanded of Naruto, while Sasuke tensed at his dumbass friend's phrasing.

_Back together,_ he thought, lip curling into a sneer. _This is a temporary truce. Nothing more. The dumbass is a fool for thinking it's anything more than that._

"He _owes you,_ Naruto! It's fucking bullshit. He should have been the _first_ to answer our call for help! We shouldn't have needed to convince _Sasuke_ just to get him on our side!"

Sasuke thought back to the time Sakura was referring to. It was several years ago; he was probably 16 at the time. A scandal had erupted in the confines of the Outer Ring, one involving the typically practical, always-sensible Shikamaru, and rival gangleader Gaara's sister.

"You remember the whole deal with Temari," Sakura remarked, apparently seeing the nostalgia on his face. "Well after all that went down we figured Shikamaru would be our best bet. But I guess Gaara still hasn't warmed up to him."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. As if he had time to fritter away thinking about petty, insignificant things. Like two people who loved each other, star-crossed and kept apart by the strictures of enemy gang status. Shikamaru's untimely romance with Temari Sabaku was of absolutely no interest to him.

"But after what happened with Suna," Sakura went on, "I think maybe _we_ can get through to him. We tried appealing to his human side, getting Temari's on-off boyfriend to go talk to him…"

Sasuke scoffed; Naruto chuckled.

"…but maybe if we play the logic side instead…like, 'hey Gaara, you owe us and if you don't pay up now, they're gonna wipe out your gang next'…"

"Sounds a lot like you want us to threaten him," Sasuke observed coolly, studying her unruffled expression. "Which is _suicide._"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Do I _look_ threatening to you?"

No, she didn't. In civilian clothes, apparently unarmed, Sakura was nothing more than a short, small, approachable girl who looked more ready for Anthropology class than throwing knives. Slowly, Sasuke was starting to see her angle.

"We're going unarmed," she informed him. "Just us, no back-up."

"No fucking way," he said immediately.

"Damn it, Sasuke…"

"You're fucking insane."

"Maybe I'm the only one who actually remembers what _happened,_" he snapped, angry that the once level-headed Sakura Haruno seemed to have abandoned reason for insanity over the years. "But like hell am I wandering into _his_ territory _unarmed _and with no back-up like some fuckin' civilian."

"I missed having you guys arguing," Naruto remarkked nostagically, leaning back in his chair like he was watching a prize fight. Sakura spared him a withering glare before rounding on Sasuke again. Apparently their truce didn't guarantee that she was going to be as sweet to him as she used to be.

"Don't bitch out when we have a chance to fix things around here," she said hotly. His hackles rose and he was on his feet, but Sakura wasn't done. "Getting Gaara is the _only shot_ we have. Even Oto and Konoha together isn't gonna be enough and even if we _can_ put up a fight, we're both gonna lose a ton of people and frankly, I'm not going to bury anymore of my friends."

"So you think that…"

"I _think,_" she interrupted, "that what we're going to tell him _is_ going to sound threatening if we're both packing and if we both bring an entourage of armed gangsters with us. But going there peacefully, essentially at his mercy, is an integrity move. It shows that we trust him."

"I _do not_ trust him," Sasuke said harshly, even though he was starting to see her point. "We go in there, me running The Hawk and you second-in-line for the Ringers, we're sitting ducks. He decides to fuck whatever unspoken treaty you guys have and whack us, that's it, game over."

"Sakura's right," Naruto said, predictably siding with his lieutenant. "It's an integrity move."

Annoyed that he was outnumbered, Sasuke ground out, "If you can _spell _integrity, I'll…"

"Sasuke take off your gun," Sakura demanded, unwilling to hear a Naruto-Sasuke argument. She pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "We have a long drive ahead of us and I'm not gonna waste anymore time. We need Gaara. Bottom line. And if you don't go, I'll go by myself, which would defeat the whole purpose of explaining to Suna that we're allies now, and…"

"_I'm going,_" Sasuke bit out, furious that she was manipulating him, and doing it _successfully._ But like hell would he just permit her to waltz into enemy territory like a civilian, with her high-profile status as a Ringer hanging over her head. Age-old protective instincts that had never really died out over the years came roaring back to life; he had not forgotten his last interaction with Gaara, and what it had nearly cost him. "But why isn't _Naruto?_ Since they're such good friends and all."

Naruto laughed at Sasuke's sarcasm. "I would if I could, man. But I can't leave things here right now. 'Sides, if Suigetsu sticks around here with me, it shows teamwork and shit."

"Great," Suigetsu drawled, toweling his hair off. "'Course, I did just use the shampoo/conditioner of the leader of my Family's biggest enemy gang…guess there's somethin' to be said for buryin' the hatchet."

Sakura laughed. Immediately, Sasuke was annoyed, especially when Suigetsu flashed her a sharp-toothed grin in response.

It seemed that his previous supposition was right, and that Sakura Haruno would be the death of him. She was leading him straight into the firefight, _without a gun._

"It _is _a risk," Sakura conceded a moment later, studying him as he plunged his hand into his jacket and removed his gun. "You know it and I know it. Just because we go there doesn't mean he'll honor the peace treaty he has with Naruto…and it would be a great opportunity to take out two high-ranking members of different gangs."

Sasuke's angry gaze spurred her on.

"But times have changed, and Gaara's…weird but he can't ignore cold hard facts," she finished. "So…let's just do this."

* * *

Sasuke had never felt so vulnerable in all his life.

Driving a car that didn't belong to him, with no weapons – not even a _knife_ – at his disposal, into Suna, with only his bitter, reckless ex-girlfriend as an ally…

She hadn't said a word to him since she'd gotten into the passenger's seat of the car they were borrowing from Tenten. It was less ostentatious than the other cars, and their goal was to blend in as much as possible, and avoid unnecessary attention. But it was slower than he would have preferred, in case things went south and they needed to make a hasty getaway.

Another thing that concerned him was his partner's temperament.

Sakura, even at her best, had a volatile temper. She was very, very smart and logical, but all of that flew out the window when she was angered. And nothing pissed her off more than someone backing out of a debt; if Gaara did not immediately agree to help out the tenuous Ringer/Hawk alliance, she would see it as a betrayal of the debt he owed Naruto and he couldn't risk her losing her cool. Doubtlessly, if she flew off the handle in front of Gaara, he'd blow them both to hell on the spot without a second thought.

"Keep your head," he told her, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the gearshift. He kept his eyes on the road, not really dying to see whatever scandalized expression took place on her face. "When we get there."

"Keep my head," she echoed, her voice calm and frosty. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her hands, folded amicably in her lap, clench into fists. "Keep _my_ head."

"And your mouth shut, if you lose control of yourself," he went on.

"I swear to God Sasuke, I swear to _God_ if we didn't need you, I'd shoot you myself."

"With what gun?" he sniped. "You had us leave those at home."

"…home?"

Sasuke realized his mistake when Sakura's tone changed from angry to curious. He hadn't meant to call Konoha home, and he damn sure didn't consider it such, either. It was the damn effect of being back here, among people he'd grown up with, and lived with, and loved…

"Konoha," he corrected sharply. He saw the exit sign for Suna coming up and exhaled a little in relief. The sooner this drive was over, the better. "Remember. Gaara is…"

"Shut up, Sasuke," she snapped, irritated that he was covering up his Freudian slip instead of just owning it. She folded her sweater-covered arms in annoyance and stared out her window instead. "You haven't even seen Gaara since that day the whole thing with Shikamaru and Temari went down. You don't know what he's like nowadays. Quit acting like he's gonna fly off the handle."

Sasuke had had enough. Sakura might have grown up some compared to the wide-eyed girl he'd loved, but she still had one fatal flaw: her refusal to distrust people who deserved it. A half-mile away from the exit, he swerved the car sharply, pulling over to the side of the desert road.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, when he'd thrown the car into Park. "It's almost nightfall, you have any idea how cold it gets out in the desert at night?"

"Listen to me," Sasuke said sharply. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, but he knew he had her undivided attention, which was what she needed. "Gaara might be on decent terms with you guys. You're right. I don't know what happened over the years that could've changed shit. But what _you_ need to realize is that there's a fuckin' _reason_ he didn't immediately come help Konoha when y'all asked him to."

Sakura blinked, absorbing what he was telling her.

"Maybe you guys aren't enemies," he went on, "but you sure as hell aren't friends. So you need to be _careful._ Understand?"

He expected Sakura to bristle with anger at his lecture, call him a few names, maybe take a swing at him. Sakura did not like to be spoken to like a rebellious child, even if sometimes, that was exactly what she was. He'd been on the receiving end of her waspish temper before. But this was something she needed to hear.

Instead of flying off the handle, however, Sakura's face went completely blank, and then she smiled beautifully at him. The effect was disarming – she had the prettiest smile he'd ever seen on a girl before, and he was entirely unprepared for it.

"I have a better handle on my emotions than I used to, Sasuke," she said sweetly. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna lose my cool."

Sasuke frowned, taken aback by her sudden composure. Finally deciding that they'd wasted enough time on this drive in silence and arguments, he turned the key in the ignition and pulled out onto the road again.

"You freaked the hell out on me," he remarked, a bit sullenly. "When you first saw me. Where was all this composure then?"

Sakura giggled a little, but the sound from the passenger's seat was humorless. He'd never known a giggle to be sad, but suddenly Tenten's Camaro was filled to bursting with despondency so thick he was almost choking on it.

"Maybe I should clarify," she conceded. "Nowadays I have perfect self-control, I keep it together, and I never lose myself…

"Except when it comes to you."

Sasuke didn't answer. What do you say to something like that anyway?

Maybe the truth:

_Same here, Sakura._

* * *

**note..** gonna get into what happened with gaara and shikamaru and temari and sasuke and sakura next chapter, so that should be fun. hope you liked this lame transition chapter! if you did let me know. for god and glory and the holy trinity.

xoxo daisy :)


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